On March 15, the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um and Art Gallery launched Dear Joseph, an ex­hi­bi­tion of works from the na­tion­al art col­lec­tion."This ex­hi­bi­tion gets its ti­tle from a let­ter by artist [Carlisle] Chang around 1961, ad­dressed to fel­low Trinida­di­an artist Mr Joseph Cromwell-As­see, then liv­ing in Lon­don," said the mu­se­um in its in­vi­ta­tion to the event.

"Chang men­tions a num­ber of artists, in­sti­tu­tions and events, such as 'Sybil At­teck, Ni­na Lam­ing, Joan St Louis, Noel Vau­crosson and Hugh Stollmey­er' and 'a young Chi­nese from San Fer­nan­do named Will Chen.' 'Mr Min­shall closed his stu­dio' and 'Mrs Wyke is em­broiled in po­lit­i­cal ac­tivism. 'The Art So­ci­ety now is housed at the old Wood­brook mar­ket, called the T'dad Art Cen­tre. 'Some of us are ex­pect­ing to work on the Hilton Ho­tel' and 'I am al­so prepar­ing a mur­al for the new Pi­ar­co air­port'."

One of the main at­trac­tions in the show is a re­stored 1962 ma­que­tte for the Pi­ar­co mur­al ti­tled The In­her­ent No­bil­i­ty of Man; the ac­tu­al mur­al was de­stroyed in 1979 dur­ing the ex­pan­sion of the air­port.Works by the artists men­tioned above and more re­cent works by oth­er artists will com­prise the rest of the ex­hi­bi­tion, which is cu­rat­ed by Kwynn John­son. "There are sec­tions in the ex­hi­bi­tion which high­light print­mak­ing tech­niques such as etch­ing and silkscreen, as well and the 18 con­tem­po­rary works fea­tured in our 2013 cal­en­dar," the mu­se­um said.

The mu­se­um al­so plans a se­ries of Sem­i­nars in Con­tem­po­rary Art as an ed­u­ca­tion­al and out­reach com­po­nent of the ex­hi­bi­tion par­tic­u­lar­ly for vi­su­al arts stu­dents and schol­ars. "A num­ber of the artists whose works have been fea­tured in our 2013 cal­en­dar will lead these dis­cus­sions."Dear Joseph will con­tin­ue un­til March 15, 2014, at the Marie Louise Hall of the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um and Art Gallery, 117 Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain. Gallery hours are Tue-Sat 10 am-6 pm. In­fo: 623-5941.