Mural commemorating 40th Independence to be unveiled today

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By Carlena Knight

As the 40th anniversary of Independence celebrations gets underway, a mural commemorating several different historic areas around the island will be unveiled later today.

Director of National Festivals, Pettley O’Keiffe, while speaking to this newsroom yesterday, revealed that the project is one that has been in the works for a period of time but suffered delays due to the pandemic.

“It is linked to Independence, and it is also linked to areas that the schools are in. So, some of the renderings of the mural you will be able to recognise and say ‘hey, I know where this place is’ and others, they have captured a very unique vision of what they see as history,” O’Keiffe explained.

“We did communicate with the schools. We collaborated with the department of education on this. So, we actually have working along with us Melville Richardson, who is over visual arts studies for the government, he is the visual arts officer and Kallan Greene who is an artist that is well-known in Antigua and Barbuda,” she added.

O’Keiffe further mentioned that this will be the first of many murals to grace the walls of the historic sporting grounds.

“We don’t plan to stop now. So, after we would have unveiled the mural, we plan to make that southern wall a historical exhibition that will capture our heritage with the five secondary schools,” O’Keiffe added.

She revealed that the experience thus far has been “an excellent one” and “is great exposure for the students.”

Work, O’Keiffe mentioned, will continue after the Independence celebrations.

The mural will be unveiled at 10 am at the South wall of the Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG).

This is just the second announcement in recent times regarding murals, as a few months ago the Minister of Festivals and Sports Daryll Matthew declared that a mural depicting several former national athletes would be commissioned around the walls of the country’s lone track and field facility, YASCO.

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