Frederick Calmes sitting among his art.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The St. Eustatius Public Library is hosting an exhibition of the work of Frederick Calmes, a young Haitian painter, sculptor and digital artist in the Netherlands.
The last day of the exhibition is today, Wednesday. The exhibition will travel to the Netherlands at a later date, perhaps in January 2025, to the office of AFRO Magazine in Weesp, North Holland.
The exhibition consists of 12 works created for the family history project “Remember Statia: Tracing Our Origins”, organised by Bigi Bon foundation and St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance from April to October.
Calmes’ art is also part of the “Remember Statia” special edition of AFRO Magazine, which contains stories of the project’s participants.
“Islanders and other people with a connection to the island delved into the slavery archives, looking for stories from their past. Some of the stories were translated into profound works of art by artist Frederick Calmes, who spent a month on the island as Artist in Residence in August this year,” the Alliance said in a press release on Tuesday.
Calmes said, “The ‘Remember Statia’ project has been a deeply meaningful experience for me. It wasn’t just about creating art – it was about bringing to life the stories of a community that holds a rich, yet often untold history. Each illustration I have completed so far has allowed me to step into the world of the storytellers, feeling their memories as if they were my own.”
St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance chairman Kenneth Cuvalay thanked everyone who had contributed to the project.
“It is important that we, the descendants of enslaved people, tell our own stories,” he said.
