Virtual Curatorial Tour of It comes from the head: A Straw Heritage with Simone Cambridge

Simone Cambridge, curator of It comes from the head: A Straw Heritage, currently on view at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (NAGB), will provide a tour of the exhibition followed by a short Q&A.

It comes from the head: A Straw Heritage celebrates straw craft through contemporary interpretations by Bahamian artists. This exhibition is inspired by Simone's grandmother, Thelma Eula Cambridge’s, writings in Growing functional arts in the Bahamas. The 1968 hand-bound volume considers the possibilities of straw work in education and the economy while documenting techniques, origins, and examples of the practice. Straw work and its legacy are woven into Bahamian histories of identity, labor, migration, environment, tourism, colonialism, and Transatlantic Slavery.

It comes from the head encourages the recognition of straw work’s stake in the nation’s cultural fabric as a contemporary mode of expression. Artwork in the exhibition honors the creativity, discipline, and commitment of the artisans, plaiters, vendors, and heritage-keepers that support and maintain straw craft as an art form and industry.

To learn more about the exhibition, visit the NAGB's website.

To learn more about the origin of this exhibition, please read Simone's article "My Grandmother’s Echo: Inheriting an Inquiry into Strawcraft."

This event is co-organized by the Thinking Through the Museum Research Network and the National Gallery of the Bahamas with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.