As of late, Castellani House has been in the news quite a bit. Two weekends ago, the majority of events for the Guyana Literary Festival – except the Awards Ceremony and the closing play, both of which were staged at the National Cultural Centre – were hosted there. The budget announcement in mid-January that the sum of $2.7 billion will be allocated for the revitalisation of the nation’s cultural landscape, coupled with President Ali’s earlier statement that a new art gallery and museum will be established, has led to some speculation over the future of Castellani House, the home of the National Art Collection.
Castellani House, a heritage building, was designed by Cesar Castellani, a Maltese architect, employed at the Public Works Department. (The edifice is the last of the noteworthy Castellani architectural masterpieces, as the Alms House and the New Amsterdam Public Hospital have been demolished.) Construction commenced in 1879 and was completed in 1882, after numerous modifications to satisfy its initial occupant, George Jenman, the first Curator of the Botanical Gardens. In later years it was the official residence of the colonial Directors of Agriculture. A third floor was added in 1942, and further modifications were performed in 1965 under the supervision of Guyanese architect Hugh McGregor Reid.
Later, it served as the official home for Prime Minister (later President) Forbes Burnham and was referred to as ‘the Residence’. After Burnham passed in 1985, the building was unoccupied for a short period. On 2nd May, 1993, following extensive repairs undertaken by the recently elected PPP/C government, the building was renamed Castellani House and designated as the home of the National Art Collection which had previously been stored at the National History and Arts Council building in the National Park on Carifesta Avenue, and also at government offices and Embassies abroad, including Sao Paulo, Brazil and London, UK.
After years of repeated requests by Guyanese artists, the National Art Collection, which had been established in 1950, had finally found a home. The late Dr Denis Williams, one of our foremost artists, observed that the name ‘Castellani House’ for the museum of fine art seemed justified by historical fact. Whilst recognising the thread of continuity in the Guyanese heritage, it acknowledges the unique value of the artist as an articulate bridge between generations.
Although Castellani House has served for 30-odd years as a centre for the visual arts – its role has always been that of a transitory nature. Firstly, it’s a wooden structure, highly vulnerable to fire, and secondly, there’s the limited space factor. The doyen of our artists, Stanley Greaves, has been pleading for years, at every opportunity for the construction of a concrete building, most recently in a Sunday column in this publication (Protecting the National Collection, SN, 17 October, 2021) after a fire destroyed the Brickdam Police Station. Mr Greaves pointed out that our extensive art collection is the only one of that size in the Caribbean that is not housed in a concrete building like those in Jamaica, Cuba, Santo Domingo and Martinique. As Mr Greaves diligently noted, “In this sense we are way behind National Collections where the care provided reflects Governmental concern about the cultural value and importance of such collections to their developing history.”
It is crucial that the location of a new home for the National Art Collection be somewhere readily accessible by the general public, such as D’Urban Park as suggested by Mr Greaves. (Hopefully Castellani House will be retained as a centre for the arts for smaller events.) If the government is resuscitating the idea of a National Creative Arts Centre, as previously mooted by the former minister responsible for culture Dr Frank Anthony, one wishes for a concrete building with an artistically influenced design, appealing and pleasing to the eye, quite unlike the dull and bland concrete box designs recently employed for additions and replacement buildings for several secondary schools within the city.
Our National Art Collection is an extensive one – comprising hundreds of paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics – which will expand with time, and hence, adequate temperature controlled storage space is a priority. Other amenities should include a properly-tooled workshop for conservation and restoration of the gallery’s inventory, and a large lecture theatre for meetings, presentations and symposiums. One would expect that a comprehensive computerised inventory of all the items in the collection will eventually become available online and benefit museums, other collections, researchers, historians, critics, lecturers and students, at both the regional and international level.
The National Art Collection requires the handling and care of properly trained staff, and we can no longer afford to pass up opportunities previously offered by institutions such as the Commonwealth Youth Institute and the Smithsonian Museum for advanced training in the curation of artifacts. (It is alleged that political interference – standard practice – was the reason the scholarships were forgone). Speaking of staff, when will the government appoint Ohene Koama as Curator? Koama, who has been working with the collection for decades, and probably knows more about the collection than anyone else, has been the Acting Curator for several years. When Castellani House came into being there was a committee of art-oriented volunteers which met periodically to assist and advise the curator on developing and implementing programmes such as themed exhibitions and lecture presentations. A revival of this committee – free of political interference – would be of great benefit.
Future generations should be afforded the opportunity of witnessing first hand the treasures created by our renowned artists such as Philip Moore, Denis Williams, Aubrey Williams, E R Burrowes, Stanley Greaves, Bernadette Persaud, to mention a few. The preservation of the National Art Collection must be a national priority.
