Ceramics student, Alistair Stevenson, will be in charge of the Bahamian booths at the Jingdezhen Ceramics Fair
The City of Nassau will be represented at the Jingdezhen 12th China International Ceramic Fair which takes place from October 18-22, 2015. Jingdezhen was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts in 2014, and the City has hosted this huge fair annually since 2004 catering to more than 2,000 international artisans. The City of Nassau was also designated a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts in 2014, and as a member of this prestigious UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), it has accepted the invitation to participate.
The Nassau booth will be hosted by Alistair Stevenson, a Bahamian ceramic arts student from Long Island in The Bahamas who is presently studying at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in JiangXi Province on a Chinese Government scholarship. An Associate of Arts graduate of the College of The Bahamas, Stevenson studied under the tutelage of Joann Behagg, and was awarded a Popop Studios Artist-in-Residence Prize in 2011. He was also the first recipient of the Denis Knight Award for excellence in Ceramic Studies at the 2012 All Ceramics Exhibition (ACE) founded by Jessica Colebrooke of Jessica’s Tileworks. Before travelling to China, Alistair worked at the D’Aguilar Art Foundation as its Curator. Stevenson stated: “One of my goals is to take the skills and knowledge acquired during studies here in China, and combine them with previous knowledge of Ceramic Art to use as a vehicle to manifest aspects of Bahamian culture with both philosophical and anthropological concepts, and this Fair is an excellent opportunity to do so.”
President of Creative Nassau, Pam Burnside, stated: “It was a pleasure to be invited to participate in this Fair from our sister city in China – this is what the Creative Cities Network is all about – an exchange of culture and creativity. This will be our first international exhibition as a part of the UCCN, and since Alistair was presently on site he could make the necessary preparations for the Nassau booth and be the host. Along with his ceramic artwork, the booth will be decorated with Bahamian flavor to give patrons a taste of The Bahamas.”
In addition to Alistair’s work, which will consist of pieces he has been working on in China, there will be two bowls by Master Bahamian Artist Max Taylor produced in the traditional Chelsea Pottery style, as well as pieces from Joann Behagg, taken from her recent “All Dead, All Gone” Exhibition which examined the dangers facing The Bahamas’ fishing resources as a result of overfishing and pollution of our waters.
Interested persons can view last year’s fair at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB_PlRnNV1M and photos of this year’s Fair will be posted on the Creative Nassau website and facebook page.