by Michelle Springer

POTTER AND jeweller Gloria Chung captured, for the second consecutive year, the Governor General's Award For Excellence in the visual arts at the 25th anniversary of the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA).

Top awards in the Sagicor Life Visual Arts & Photography competition were announced on Saturday evening during the Sagicor Life Inc. NIFCA Visual Arts and Photography Preview and Official Opening at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in St Michael. Chung took the prestigious $5000 prize and trophy. The award for excellence is available only in the professional category and given if the judges decide the gold awardee has merited it.

Chung, an art teacher for 19 years, whose piece Element's of Chalky Mount impressed the judges, later told the WE it was important for professionals to participate in NIFCA to ensure high standards are met, standards she has seen raised over the years.

"The standards of art coming out of the secondary schools have definitely improved with the younger teachers putting their own twist on teaching. With all the changes going on in the community and the wider world and with students travelling, their sense of design has improved," she said. This trend augurs well for the types of work seen at the tertiary level, and in particular at the Barbados Community College, where Chung teaches. As a result of the changes, there is more of an awareness of design, with more sophisticated trends emerging.

"The emphasis is now on modern art and modern sculpture also influenced by the influx of books, magazines and the Internet," she said. Despite the advent of the digital age, Chung wasn't concerned with the impact on art. Even as the digital age is seemingly governing modes of self expression, Chung noted the fine arts were still safe.

"I find the fine artists still have their niche and they are still very much natural. It is interesting that certain subject areas attract certain personalities. In ceramics, for example, very down to earth people are drawn to it. They don't mind the mess, they are drawn to naturalness," she observed.

Having won the top award in NIFCA on two occasions, Chung's derives pride from the satisfaction of seeing the medium recognised on a national level.

"For me, that is what I want to promote. The beauty and the naturalness of our resources. There is an abundance of clay and it needs to be shown on an international level. There are many potters and ceramists who go to Japan because that is their strength," she stated.