Apparently, if you missed the New Blood 2 opening, you missed one of the most, if not the most well attended and by many accounts most successful art openings of the season. The brainchild of Lucien Downes, New Blood, was first proposed as a juxtaposition of what is dubbed Professional artists and Emerging artists within the St. Croix community. Each emergent artist was to be paired with and mentored by a Professional artist. While the first New Blood event fell short of the goal of the mentor pairing, it maintained the juxtaposing of artists who have been practicing for a longer time and is relatively well known in the art community on St. Croix by those who are now poking their heads out of their artist’s shell.

​

The show was billed as all-inclusive and included 27 Professional and Emerging artists. According to the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts website, “New Blood is a joint venture between The Caribbean Museum Center and Lucien Downes and is sponsored by Artists Guild of St. Croix and one of our wonderful community servants.” The impetus for the show was based on the difficulty of breaking into the Atlanta Art Market as an emerging artist, which Lucien Downes experienced. This small community is rife with artists of all levels who span the genres. The exhibit featured mostly mimetic work with a few artists creating more stylized abstracted versions of native Caribbean culture, flora and fauna, photography and sculpture.

With an audience ripe for uplifting activity in the aftermath of two Category five storms, Tralice Bracy, Executive Director of the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, [CMCArts] said, “It is this kind of event that builds community. Most people walked away feeling inspired by the creativity and uplifted by the arts, especially the music. New Blood seemed to bring out members from our community who don't often attend CMCArts exhibitions.” She added, “The museum center was excited to broaden its audience. This New Blood exhibit will often draw friends and family of the exhibiting artists to the opening.”

New Blood 2 featured “dance performances… [that] were elegantly choreographed and were visually powerful in the space performed. The dance was choreographed with live music. To have a vibraphone and saxophone play all night in the upstairs gallery was lively, it created a fun vibe for the visitors while they milled about looking at the art.”  Many of the artists expressed gratitude to Lucien for organizing the exhibit, which was initially scheduled to close on March 16th, and has now been extended to accommodate the Literary Festival. The extension allows the artists to replace sold pieces with new pieces. 

An Artist Talk hosted by the Professional artists is scheduled for March with a closing reception towards the end of the show.

The CMCArts is located at 62 King Street Frederiksted, St. Croix and overlooks the water front. It began as the singular vision of Candia Atwater some 25 plus years ago has been the single most important institution for support and promotion of Visual arts here in the US Virgin Islands. Its goal, according to Atwater, is to feature Caribbean artists regardless of the Island they hail from. The CMCArts is currently seeking an Executive Director and staffing for July to alleviate its mostly volunteer staff. Follow the Caribbean Museum Center on Facebook @cmcviand visit their website: www.cmcarts.org. Follow Lucien Downes on Fecebook @LucienArtDownes and Instagram: @LucienDownes and visit his website: www.luciendownesart.com. 

February 24, 2018

Photo Above: Lucien Downes, Senator Myron D. Jackson and members of the Smithsonian Institute at the New Blood exhibition. 

​

Photo Below: Students from the Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School  Art Honors Society visit the exhibit during a school field trip.