Wouter  Welling, The Afrika Museum (Berg en Dal) and Caribbean art: Collecting and presenting contemporary art from the Dutch Antilles, Haiti, Cuba and beyond  Since the last decade of the twentieth century the Afrika Museum has focused its exhibitions on contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora. As a curator Welling is especially interested in artists with a global orientation using local sources rooted in African spiritual traditions.

Erica M. James, Dreams of Utopia  During the past few years in the United States many arts bloggers have shared a proposal by noted curator and arts administrator Renny Pritikin, entitled “Facets of a Healthy Art Scene”.

Kitty Zijlmans, Art’s agency on contemporary Curaçao: Tirzo Martha’s “Blijf maar plakken” and the Instituto Buena Bista  This presentation will give an example of how a contemporary artwork – or rather art practice – can help to forge a sustainable community in the Caribbean ‘bottom up’, with an outreach to its diaspora. The work in question is Curaçaon artist, Tirzo Martha’s art project “Blijf maar plakken” (translated literally as “just keep adding on”, but with a further connotation which will be clarified).

Tirzo Martha, Captain Caribbean vs. Anansi colonialism  Growing up on the island of Curaçao between the 1960’s and the 1980’s was a surreal experience. Social and political instability had a direct impact on the community. The revolt that took place on May 30th 1969 has stood as an example of how extreme and out of hand the situation had become. The island suffered social and economic decay which created the conditions for corruption and abuses of power in political, governmental and social structures. In several neighborhoods you could see and feel its abatement.

On 5-6 February 2013, the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (KIT, Royal Tropical Institute) hosted the project conference ‘Sustainable Art Communities: Creativity and Policy in the Transnational Caribbean’. This is part of a two-year international research project led by Dr Leon Wainwright (The Open University, UK), with Co-Investigator Professor Dr Kitty Zijlmans (Leiden University), funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC, UK).