Guyanese poet and artist, Syble Douglas will launch a collection of selected poems titled Transition – Poems Old and New at the National Gallery this Wednesday with readings presented by Sheila King and Dr Rupert Roopnaraine among others.
The new collection by Douglas includes selections from her previous three publications and previously unpublished work, reflecting her deep love for country and the challenges and changes of adult life in Guyana and abroad, a press release from the National Gallery said.
Syble Douglas is widely known as one of the first women to join E.R. Burrowes’s pioneering art classes in 1948 and also led in the field of journalism, editing both the women’s page and the social columns at the Daily Argosy. She was actively involved in local art exhibitions in the 1950s and ‘60s’ and had initiated the Malcara Art Gallery in Georgetown in 1969 where art works were not framed and put on display for sale in the day prior to the existence of any private galleries or the National Gallery.
The release from the National Gallery said that Douglas emigrated in 1994 but returns frequently to Guyana to renew friendship and family ties.
Her collection, Transition, will be on sale on Wednesday and the public is invited to attend the launch.
Meanwhile, the National Art Gallery announced that the Mashramani Exhibition which was mounted has been extended to March 28 to give gallery visitors a further opportunity to see the work of Guyana’s leading artists in a show with the theme, ‘Presenting Excellence in the Visual Arts’.
The Mashramani Exhibition displays paintings; sculptures in metal, wood and leather and fabric art drawn from the private collections of individuals; from the Roots and Culture Gallery and from artists’s own collections, in addition to work from the National Collection.
Works on display include those of Winston Strick, Carl Anderson, Desmond Ali, Josefa Tamayo, George Simon, Betsy Karim, Merlene Ellis, Ron Savory, Terrence Roberts and Chekama Skeete.
The gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday and 2 pm to 6 pm on Saturday; it is closed on Sunday and holidays. Admission is free.
