by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 15, 2024
As of the publication of this article in Friday’s issue of Amandala, the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), through its Institute of Creative Arts (ICA) along with the partnership with the Belize Tourism Board (BTB), will be making its final preparation to host its photograph exhibit titled, “PEOPLE & PLACES: Capturing Culture and History – Photograph Exhibit”.
“This is another creative space they identified. We have been trying our best to upgrade and enhance the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts and so we focused here [on] them, especially with the Belisle Gallery. This is not only a space for art, [but] a multipurpose space for the creative arts, and we decided to showcase everything we did – the air conditioning, the new sign, the audio-visual equipment – to showcase the partnership we embarked on in the photography exhibit with young photographers,” Kim Vasquez, Director of ICA, told Amandala
Vasquez said the exhibit falls in compass with NICH’s 20th anniversary in highlighting some of the country’s cultural sites and people.
“As we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of NICH, [it] is to look at some of the cultural sites, a few of them across the country, and not only the sites, but the people that bring these to life, the cultural workers, even our own NICH employees. For example, the Houses of Culture in Benque, San Ignacio, and Orange Walk were also subjects of the photography shoots,” she noted.
The exhibit will feature the photography work of five young photographers – Dioni Marin, Jalen Chacon, Abdon Tzib, Enrisen Tzib, and Simon Tzul – who were chosen by the Institute. Several artists submitted and showed interest, but only the selected five made the cut.
“It was up-and-coming photographers. We had three photographers from San Antonio, Cayo, who are friends; they just decided to sign up and see what’s coming out of it. We had another one from Belize City, another one from Corozal, so it was good to see the up-and-coming photographers join in and put this together … I just told them, you guys are the photographers, you can do magic behind the lens, so just go ahead and do your thing,” said Erick Lopez, Program Officer at NICH.
40 pieces of art will be showcased free of cost to the public on Friday, February 16, at 7:00 p.m.