A Preview of Womxn in Art 22

It is returning to the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts with an official opening on Friday, March eighteenth. But, Womxn in Art 22 is pooling together the works of about a hundred women whose artistic interpretations is expected to evoke a flurry of emotions. Entitled “Re-emergence: A Kaleidoscope of Creativity,” this year’s series of events will feature online symposium, business training workshops, and an exhibit of art and poetry. The media was invited for a sneak peek and here’s a report.

Kim Vasquez

Duane Moody, Reporting

It’s Women’s Month and the new facelift that the Institute of Creative Arts is getting is timely, as they launch the 2022 Women in Art activities, to be held through to the end of March. It will feature various activities, starting with a symposium and including women in literary art, performing and creative arts, as well as visual arts. The talent pool is about one hundred women.

Kim Vasquez, Senior Program Officer, Institute of Creative Arts

“We began this morning with the second online symposium. We covered topics including mental health for creatives, we spoke about export readiness; we had a discussion as well on intellectual property. Tomorrow we go into our seminar series in partnership with BELTRAIDE and on Friday, we have of course the exciting event, the opening of the Women in Art Exhibit.

Briheda Haylock

Briheda Haylock, Curator, Women in Art 22 Exhibit

“We didn’t want to stick to a team and restrict people; we wanted the women to come as they are, so kaleidoscope of creativity popped into my head. I wanted to incorporate what the Bliss is trying to do, bringing back the arts into the Bliss Institute as well as highlighting all the different talents out there. And what’s wonderful for me is that I am seeing a lot of different faces.”

Curator for the exhibit is well-known artist Briheda Haylock. The art exhibit will officially open to the public on March eighteenth, through to the end of the month, and Haylock breaks down what you can expect when you enter the Belisle Art Gallery at the Bliss.

Briheda Haylock

“From me, you can expect something a little bit disturbing, so sorry not sorry. And then we move on to. For me you see some of the usual stuff – the scenic stuff, you see some still life stuff, but there are also some empowering stuff. I wouldn’t say there is much of sadness in the show, but it makes you feel alive, vibrant. I feel empowered, happy.”

Some of the women who will be participating shared with the media about being provided the opportunity to take up space in the Women in Art activities for 2022.

Jaylan Craig

Jaylan Craig, Creative Director, Modern Dance Movement

“As a dancer, as a performing artist, I am so excited to be working with Miss Kim and other female artists this year for Women in Art. This year, I will be taking part in the opening ceremony. We can’t share too much because it is a surprise, but I do want to say that it was a memorable, a very fun experience to be working again in person with other female artists. We have musicians, we have singer and we have other dancers as well who ended up taking part in a section of the opening ceremony on Friday.”

Jeannie Martinez

Jeannie Martinez, Artist/Poet

“I believe it would be best portrayed when you hear it or when you see it. You will be able to appreciate it more than before because a lot of artists for the past two years kept their things to themselves and wasn’t able to show a lot of their work. So this is an opportunity for Belizeans to appreciate the literary elements and become more exposed to how the artists can portray different feelings in their work.”

Arikcia Sanchez

Arikcia Sanchez, Creative Production/Photographer, Women Wear What They Want

“It’s to encourage hard topics to talk about so we felt it was a lot easier to do it through photographs. In the beginning it was about how social media can really affect one’s self image and we wanted to portray a lot more real women out there and how women can be eccentric in themselves. Apart from that, we do talk about other hard topics like sexual assault and mental health and how all of that can incorporate together.”

Duane Moody for News Five.