Lisa Allen-Agos­ti­ni in­ter­views T&T artist GA Gard­ner about his In­ter­net-based arts col­lec­tive GET­THRU

Q: Tell me about the name GET­THRU. Is it what it sounds like in T&T par­lance?

A: "Get thru" is a re­al­ly com­mon­ly used lo­cal term here in T&T, but I want­ed to nar­row this mean­ing and fo­cus on art. How can one "get thru" via the arts? What are the op­tions for a broad­er di­a­log? I want­ed to play on this com­mon term and de­fine it in the con­text of fine arts.When I came back home a few years ago, af­ter over 25 years work­ing in the US, as a pro­fes­sor, artist, book pub­lish­er and ed­u­ca­tion­al con­sul­tant, I brought with me a com­mit­ment to art ed­u­ca­tion, es­pe­cial­ly fo­cused on con­tem­po­rary art.

I want­ed to con­tin­ue to use art as a tool that can help ed­u­cate and bridge eco­nom­ic gaps. I want­ed to be in­volved with art ac­tivism in coun­tries of­ten un­der-ser­viced on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage, when it comes to art. So I found­ed GET­THRU, a T&T-based non-prof­it arts or­gan­i­sa­tion.

This or­gan­i­sa­tion cre­ates projects that serve to ed­u­cate cul­tures through the arts. It us­es art as a teach­ing tool. The or­gan­i­sa­tion's first project Thru Con­tem­po­rary, for ex­am­ple, hous­es and main­tains a per­ma­nent ju­ried col­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary fine arts. This project is a col­lab­o­ra­tion of glob­al artists, writ­ers and cu­ra­tors.

Our mis­sion is to ac­quire and pro­mote the art­works of promi­nent con­tem­po­rary artists from all over the world and share their works with com­mu­ni­ties who of­ten don't get a va­ri­ety of in­ter­na­tion­al con­tem­po­rary art on their home soil. We pro­vide ac­cess to these works and cre­ate pro­grammes to ed­u­cate and in­form about the col­lec­tion and its re­la­tion­ship to the lo­cal cul­tures.

In ad­di­tion we are in­ter­est­ed in pub­lish­ing ma­te­ri­als and reach­ing out to gen­er­al com­mu­ni­ties. Through ex­hi­bi­tions we make the col­lec­tion avail­able to the gen­er­al pub­lic and we are con­stant­ly build­ing re­la­tion­ships with gal­leries, mu­se­ums and arts spaces around the world to ex­hib­it var­i­ous com­ple­ments of this grow­ing col­lec­tion.

Who are the T&T artists in­volved in the project and who does what in its or­gan­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture?

We are con­stant­ly re­view­ing works from artists who sub­mit pieces from around the world, but I must ad­mit that most of the artists I have been fol­low­ing for years, so it was not dif­fi­cult to be­gin this se­lec­tion process. As an artist, I have do­nat­ed works to the or­gan­i­sa­tion. Ad­di­tion­al­ly we have works from oth­er lo­cals, Adele Todd and Sarah Knights.

We are open to new re­la­tion­ships with es­tab­lished and up­com­ing artists. I was at a lo­cal fur­ni­ture store on the Av­enue and while test­ing out a chair I looked up and saw the work of Sarah Knights. I liked her work at first sight and two days lat­er was at her home to see more of her art.In the case of Adele Todd I had known her and fol­lowed her work for years. It varies. These lo­cal artists are in­clud­ed in the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion, but are gen­er­al­ly not in­volved in the man­age­ment of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

What are the ben­e­fits of work­ing as an arts col­lec­tive, es­pe­cial­ly in the way you've set up GET­THRU as an on­line col­lec­tive?

The ben­e­fit is ac­cess. By work­ing to­geth­er we are able to move to­geth­er as one, we are uni­fied in a cen­tral be­lief about art and its im­por­tance in in­flu­enc­ing cul­tur­al and so­cial change. To­geth­er the group is stronger. With this strength we have greater ac­cess to ex­hi­bi­tion spaces glob­al­ly, as well as fund­ing and pos­si­bil­i­ties to ed­u­cate through the arts.

Most of the works in the col­lec­tion are rep­re­sent­ed by gal­leries and are well es­tab­lished but this ef­fort does not take away from the ac­cess they have al­ready cre­at­ed with their au­di­ence. It sim­ply ex­tends the reach of their mes­sage while pro­vid­ing ex­am­ples that can serve to broad­en the de­f­i­n­i­tion of art to view­ers.

What are some of the goals you have for the or­gan­i­sa­tion? And have you achieved any of them so far?

Be­yond the goal to ed­u­cate through the arts, I would like to be able to work more with lo­cal con­tem­po­rary artists and to con­tin­ue to build a col­lec­tion that shakes up the mind of even the most cre­ative per­son and chal­lenges them to do more and take risks with their art. I would al­so like to do more in the way of pub­lish­ing books and cat­a­logs about the col­lec­tion and do more out­reach with the art schools here and abroad.

In ad­di­tion, I'd like to cre­ate more pro­grammes to teach con­tem­po­rary forms of art in un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties. We are al­so open to part­ner­ing with busi­ness­es and oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tions to ex­pand our reach and ful­fill our mis­sion.

We are on our way. About six months ago we got start­ed with the first on­go­ing project, Thru Con­tem­po­rary Arts. To­day we have ex­hib­it­ed in Ger­many, St Croix, and here in T&T, with fu­ture ex­hi­bi­tions planned for France and the USA. Our col­lec­tion is very di­verse in medi­um, from pho­tog­ra­phy to paint­ings and mixed me­dia. We have con­tem­po­rary art­works from France, Spain, Ger­many, the Nether­lands, USA, Poland, Hong Kong, Iran and T&T.

What are your thoughts on the T&T con­tem­po­rary arts scene? Who have you been watch­ing–both in and out of your col­lec­tive?

We are very tal­ent­ed here in T&T and set­ting our sights on con­tem­po­rary art will help to en­rich that area. Cur­rent­ly there are on­ly a few col­lec­tors that are in­ter­est­ed and few na­tion­al grants avail­able, so there are lim­it­ed ways for the artists to make a liv­ing lo­cal­ly in the con­tem­po­rary art scene.

Con­tem­po­rary artists in oth­er coun­tries are of­ten sub­sidised by the gov­ern­ment through grants or stipends. In Berlin, Ger­many, for an ex­am­ple, con­tem­po­rary artists sur­vive on art grants and sel­dom cre­ate works for sale to the gen­er­al pub­lic. This art is used to in­form and ed­u­cate or sim­ply to cre­ate an ex­pe­ri­ence for the pub­lic.

There are gal­leries and art spaces in T&T that are try­ing to pro­mote and ed­u­cate about the depth of con­tem­po­rary art but with­out gov­ern­ment in­ter­est or with lim­it­ed ac­cess to grants, art col­lec­tors will de­ter­mine the suc­cess of this move­ment in T&T and around the world.

More in­fo

www.get­thru.org