By Alim Hosein
The biennial Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition (GVACE) will be held in June of this year. The deadline for entries is May 25, 2019 and the Awards Ceremony is scheduled for June 27, 2019. Artwork should be submitted to the National Gallery of Art, Castellani House.
When the Guyana Visual Arts Competition was first held in 2012, it attracted an astonishing 204 entries from 90 artists. The large number of entries was surprising, even to the organisers. But it was probably understandable since a national art competition had not been held since 1994. The subsequent GVACE exhibitions attracted equally large numbers of entries.
These numbers are still surprising and pleasing, because of Guyana’s small population and the perceived slowdown in art since the 1990s. But the entries showed that a surprising range of persons were engaging in art. The entrants included the usual practicing artists and art students, but also persons whose main occupations were outside the realm of art – teachers, office workers, managers, housewives and others. In fact, the entrants represent a good cross-section of the Guyanese population from most of the regions of the country.