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”. What Pritikin offers is a heartfelt dream of an arts utopia that may be theoretically true or possible in the United States as a whole, but is very hard to find on a local level in most parts of America, and indeed the rest of the world. Few if any singular Caribbean society is large enough, resourced enough, or deep enough in terms of talent or patronage to realistically dream that a version of Pritikin’s model would develop on its shores. However, this does not mean that vibrant arts communities have not periodically emerged in the Caribbean, nor that they have not been sustained in the region. It has meant that sometimes stasis has set in, as leaders, artists, formal and informal arts institutions, networks and communities dream of utopia, while failing to recognize, value and deploy what is present and available to them locally and trans-nationally. Using the Bahamas as an example, this presentation examines how a community released the perfect for the good. Through focused responses to its local needs, it transformed itself from a provincial arts space, distrustful of innovation and change, to one more open to growth and more strongly connected by local, regional and global art networks. While positive and far-reaching, such changes rarely evolve without attendant complications. In spite of advances, this paper proposes that the cultivation of sustainable arts communities in the Bahamas and the global Caribbean will depend on a number of factors. They include: developing and continuing to forge meaningful local and transnational relationships, opening curatorial possibilities across borders and attendant bodies, and shaping artistic discourse and resulting contributions to the written and exhibition archive, as well as cultivating both local and transnational funding resources. In part such efforts need to ensure that the region is thoroughly informed as to how major transnational agreements such as The European Partnership Agreement will not only impact creative industries of the Caribbean, but possibly benefit them. Some images, sounds or other media used in the following presentation are subject to copyright restrictions that prevent them being shown. In order to provide a complete record of the conference, these items have been blurred or silenced. Should we obtain permission to use these images, sounds and other media in the future the films will be updated.