WHAT WE DO

PRODUCTION

Punch Creative Arena is a curatorial initiative that aims to showcase and interrogate creative production with a multi-disciplinary focus on local, regional and international art practices.

The arts in Barbados and the region are too often considered dispensable rather than fundamental to the productive exchange of intellectual expression.  Punch generates projects that focus on exhibitions, artistic production and research, in an effort to encourage art making and discourse while building community awareness and involvement. 

Punch was started in 2013 by Allison Thompson and Ewan Atkinson. We are both independent cultural practitioners and faculty members in the Division of Fine Arts at the Barbados Community College.  Perceiving a lack of a supportive infrastructure for artistic practice in Barbados, we wanted to initiate and develop our own collaborative projects as producers. Within the parameters of the college, we wanted to address the gap between ideas generated in the classroom and the ‘real world’ .

We have worked with exhibiting artists to provide critical feedback during production and the conceptualisation of the exhibition, we install and promote the exhibition, and in 2015 we started producing digital catalogues with critical essays.