Three months into the 2021 academic year, the fundraiser for the students of Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) still needs to pick up steam.

The GoFundMe to ‘Help students who lost supplies in school fire’ set a target of US$20,000 and so far has close to US$3,000 pledged to the effort.

Posted by Paul Wilson, president of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts Alumni Association, the fundraiser is aimed at “helping students recover some of their losses and regain confidence once more in the pursuit of their dreams’’.

On the morning of September 17 this year, flames were seen in the School of Visual Arts Painting Studios. It caused extensive damage to the structure of the building and destroyed all its contents including valuable school equipment, art supplies and partial and completed works of art.

 “As you can imagine, the students are completely devastated as these tools were an important part of their prep work including laptops, tablets and a camera,” said Susan Lee Quee, EMCVPA Acting Dean of the School of Visual Arts.

“Though this a major setback, we are thankful there was no harm to any of the students. The students are resilient and determined as they try to work through the setback.”

The fire also impacted several recipients of the 2020 and 2021 C.B. Facey Foundation (CBFF) Tertiary Scholarship, which assists with tuition for students in their final year.

“Our support for the students in their final year is strategic as it facilitates their peace-of-mind to concentrate on creating displays for their final year exhibition,” said Anna Ward, executive director of the Foundation. “The loss and damage really shook me as it was weeks earlier that we visited to see the displays of the six 2020 scholars, two of whom were impacted by the fire.”

Traumatic

For Brad Pinnock, the fire took away two years of work, but his thoughts are with the current fourth-year artists.

“For the final year students that are coming up now, I really feel it for them more because they don’t have anywhere to work,” said Pinnock, who now holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts.

“Personally, I lost a lot of stuff. I had a laptop, two phones and a lot of material in the studio at the time that were all destroyed.”

He added: “I feel a way about it. That’s the place where we used to stay and work. Now, a lot of restrictions are in place and that makes it even harder for the students to work.”

Pinnock recounts that he was on the compound at the time of the fire, clearing out the studio he used for his final-year exhibition.

“I was moving my stuff out so that a new student could have the space. By the time we came back, the whole place was in the flames. One person was sleeping upstairs and fortunately they got out in time,” he said.

His work, an expansive display on the basketball courts just outside the building, was partially destroyed in the fire. It comprised six slightly larger-than-life sculptures of horses and other figures made with mainly found materials including discarded betting slips from gambling houses. The display stretched his imagination, art and diminutive frame away from his initial degree of focus on painting.

Scholar Sasha-Kay Hinds, who also lost elements of her final-year exhibition and research entitled Black Women Osunality in Popular Visual Culture, in the fire, summed up the experience in one word – “Traumatic”.

“I didn’t even think about myself, I just want to forget about that,” she said. “Everything I had in the space is gone… I had materials and artwork from my final year project and before. My feelings are mixed, but overall I felt genuinely sad for the current batch of final-year students. They need the space to work. My mind went on them and the things they had in there.”

The fundraiser is still open.

Ward said, while there are plans to rebuild, students’ degrees are in jeopardy.

“That morning we visited during the summer, students were in the studio working on their art, already preparing for their final year exhibitions. This appeal is for them,” Ward said.

If you would like to assist, contact the EMCVPA directly to donate or visit the ‘Help students who lost supplies in school fire’ GoFundMe page set up by the Alumni Association.