Fresh Art/Spaces

In April 2014, Fresh Milk shared its interactive online map of brick and mortar Caribbean art spaces on Facebook. Incredibly, in less than 24 hours, the map received over 10,000 views globally. Anxiety developed among those not yet included. Dialogue took place online, some frustrated by being left out, many excited to see the dynamism across the region and asking to be included. Limited formal institutional support exists for contemporary arts in the Caribbean. Consequently, informal artist led initiatives such as Fresh Milk are in the default position of advancing the creative sector. These grassroots efforts build connections from the ground up, using the internet to build on and off line communities. Glissant’s “Poetics of Relation” inspires the rhizomatic network, facilitating interaction with floating archipelagos everywhere. While physically in Barbados, Fresh Milk is virtually present in over 150 countries. Launched in May 2014 via Tumblr and Facebook, Fresh Milk Books (FMB) similarly demonstrates the radical potential allowed by virtual geographies. An on-going experiment, FMB investigates the potential of online spaces to foster a community of spirit. Initially created to raise awareness of Fresh Milk’s on-site reading room, the FMB review series #CCF Weekly encourages short, collaborative, multi-media responses to the physical archive. This initiative propels literacy beyond its linguistic application, to an awareness of the trans-media literacy that digital spaces demand. Further, the notion of apparent agency afforded by digital publishing raises critical questions about the intangible economics of e-governance and digital cultural production. This expanded critical space reimagines who and what we consider art/spaces to be. This multi-media presentation, co-authored by Annalee Davis, Amanda Haynes and Yasmine Espert, will be presented virtually by Davis and Haynes. Davis and Haynes will discuss the online platforms in relation to the (in)visibility of artists regionally and internationally. Specifically they will speak to the interactive map of Caribbean art/spaces, FMB and the Adopt-a-Stop/Fresh Milk local bench project, all birthed online.