Celebrating Belizean Women In Art All Month Long

The 2024 Women In Art exhibit is here just in time for International Women’s Month. Every year, the Institute of Creative Arts showcases various mediums of art submitted by female artist from across Belize. This year’s exhibit will open tomorrow under the theme ‘StrongHER: Mentoring, Elevating and Ascending Together’. News Five’s Britney Gordon visited the Bliss Center today to meet a few of the featured artists and for an exclusive preview of the exhibit. Here’s that story.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

We are halfway through the month of March which is recognized globally as international women’s month, and the celebrations have only intensified. As part of activities for Women’s Month, the Institute of Creative Arts will launch its annual women’s art exhibit titled Women in Art 2024: StrongHER: Mentoring, Elevating & Ascending Together.  We visited the gallery for a sneak peak of the featured pieces. Kim Vasquez, Director of ICA spoke to us about the event.

 

Kim Vasquez, Director, ICA

“We have well over thirty women artists from across the country showcasing art in different types of art. We have handcraft. We have some new types of, we have, for example, I saw one of the ostrich feathers and the ostrich eggs being converted into art by Nancy Marin in the showcase out there. We have photography, we have painting, we have sculpting fashion design. It’s, it really is a mix. And we also had a series of youth workshops happening across the country, and we have, I think, over fifty submissions as well. That will be a special section of the exhibit as well this year.”

 

We spoke with featured artist, Minita Concha, a nurse, who has been painting since she was nine years old. Concha has been featured in the exhibit for a decade now. Concha explained that she draws inspiration from several places such as the Belizean flora and fauna around her, but also more obscure sources such as books about Victorian regal patterns.

 

Minita Concha, Painter

“Whatever I create, I always try to have, Belize in mine. So if you really look at it, you will see that the comb, they’re all about beauty. But if you really look at it, you will see that one of them have a mango in it, one have the black orchid, and the third one was supposed to be blue myrtle. So I want all of them to represent beauty and as women we like to care for ourself, we like putting on lipsticks, we like combing our hair and stuff like that.”

 

Vasquez further explained that the exhibit is not only meant to showcase art, but to inspire sisterhood as well. Young female artists will be able to be mentored, so that they may develop their own passion for the arts and be featured if they desire to someday.

 

Kim Vasquez

“We are a proud member of the Women’s Month Planning Committee. And this is something that we’ve been doing annually for a number of years, COVID had brought a pause to Women in Art. And we have gradually been rebuilding and bringing it back. And we are really seeing where every year we are seeing younger artists come in to participate. More women are participating from across the country and the call is open. We send out the call from the last week of January and anyone. And that’s the beauty of Women in Art is that it’s meant to be an inclusive exhibit where both professional and women who have been doing art for a number of years showcase their art besides somebody that is very young and may never have participated in any, in an exhibit before. But it’s about sisterhood. This year we’re focusing a lot on mentorship.”

 

As Vasquez mentioned, the exhibit features artists of various mediums. Fashion designer Irma Ramos, of CK Designs, has been designing for about twenty years and is featuring her art in the exhibit for the second time. Ramos explained that she enjoys creating fashion for young girls and that her art displayed this year, draws inspiration from the 1800’s fashion trends of wealthy and unwealthy girls and showcases how fashion has evolved in modern day to mimic the extravagance of the 1800’s without the price.

 

Irma Ramos, Fashion Designer

“The kids, because, I like, girls. Clothing for little girls, because it’s the cute designs, no? It’s more for creative for designers, it’s more creative minds and ideas. So, for that, I design for that area. I’m an expert in different areas, but, personal, I decide for kid area.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.

 

The Women In Art exhibit is free for all to visit and will be on display all month long.