Not far from the hotel belt, indeed right opposite the Grand Beach Resort, you will find the Grand Anse Shopping Centre. If you venture into the middle of this, you will find a set of stairs behind the artificial pond, to the right of Niki's shoe shop. Go up these stairs, past the doctor's office, past the computer shop, past the dentist, and follow the corridor to the left. After the door marked 'No Soliciting', you will find another marked ART GRENADA.
You have arrived. (About time too, you might think)
The proprietor of Art Grenada is Richard Buchanan, once curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, responsible for putting together collections for large corporations. He has been in Grenada since 1990, and was for 3 years president of the Arts Council here. He started to see that there was a market for Grenadian art, and a need to promote it. Art Grenada now displays and sells exclusively work produced in Grenada.
A lot can be said, and has been written, about the artists whose work appears in Art Grenada. It is worth getting hold of ‘Greeting’ magazine, issues vol. 10/98 & 11/99. Look for the meticulous landscapes of Ivan Godfrey, the glowing colours and often driven figures of Donald Irwin, the larger-than-life, engulfing, wry Beryl Cooke-esque characters of Christine Matuschek, the mermaid-inspired, naive but complex paintings of the octogenarian Canute Caliste, the multi-layered pictures of Susan Mains, which challenge you to get involved with them. All are instantly, and enduringly, Caribbean in flavour and inspiration.
Richard Buchanan’s own abstract and haunting work is also there. (Not just on canvas: look also for the plates!)
The above is not a clumsy attempt to summarise the spirit of a handful of original minds to a few words: others do that better! It is intended to emphasise that art is alive and well; diverse, evolving, and accessible in Grenada.
If you want to take some Grenadian art home, (and, alongside spices, it is one of the most authentically 'Grenadian' souvenirs you can get), then this place is well worth a look.
Prices range from $EC 80 to $6000. But looking, as they say, is free. And also highly revealing and enjoyable.
Richard does not peddle what he calls 'touristy junk': what you see here is worthy of the name 'art'; and Art Grenada feels a responsibility to help Grenadian artists develop their talents. Canvas can, of course, be rolled into a tube for easy and safe transport.
