Barbara Stubbs

Each year, alumni from Dartmouth’s Arts & Sciences Graduate Programs fund research grants which are awarded to select graduate students; keep checking The Graduate Forum for highlights from this year’s grant recipients. 

Caribbean artwork is a canvas painted with the mixture of indigenous heritage, European tradition and African custom revealed in the explosive work of self-taught artists or in the fine finish of an academy-trained sculptor. I used the development of art in Jamaica as the foundation for my graduate thesis and have centered my research on the question: How is identity reflected in Caribbean art?

I traveled to Jamaica in October 2011, interviewed local artists and presented my own sculptural work at the first Rex Nettleford Conference of the Arts, at the Jamaica School of Art in Kingston. I engaged in discussions about motivation and technique with Caribbean students and professional artists. I then presented my abstract and conclusions at the Southeast College Art Conference in Savannah, Georgia.

I sincerely appreciate receiving the Alumni Graduate Research Award, which supported my research in Jamaica.

by Barbara Stubbs