Artwork beautifies defaced wall at Buccament Secondary School

The graffiti that once defaced a wall of the Buccament Bay Secondary School assembly hall has been replaced with beautiful artwork depicting national treasures.{{more}}

The entire wall was repainted with two murals under the theme “celebrating our national treasures” through a joint effort between the Buccament Bay resort and McAllister Designs. One mural is of the country’s National Bird, the Amazona Guildingii and the other, the Falls of Baleine.

The painting of the Falls of Baleine was done by Calvert Jones, owner of McAllister Designs, while young and upcoming artist, Rashida Samuel painted the national bird.

A ceremony was held at the school on Tuesday to officially reveal the murals to the public.

Since its establishment in 2010, the Buccament Bay resort has had a close relationship with the school and has hosted a number of development programmes for the students.

The mural is part of a beautification project in which the resort intends to do a complete facelift of the school and its surroundings.

“These murals are the first phase of this project and we are delighted to be able to lend assistance to beautify this school,” said Garrett Ronan, Vice President of Hotel and Resort Development for Harlequin Hotels and Resorts.

Ronan, who journeyed from Barbados for the unveiling, also said that the relationship between the school and the hotel is a “special one”.

Before the opening of the resort, Mel Jameson, Director of Training at the Buccament Bay resort conducted pre-training sessions at the school.

Jameson explained to SEACHLIGHT that in July of 2010, the resort was looking for space to do all the pre-opening training as they did not have the facilities on site at the time to do.

“I came down here to the school and the principal was the first to extend a hand of welcome.

“She told me I can use all of their space. So the actual partnership goes way back,” he said.

Jameson described the murals as not only “beautiful” but also “inspiring”.

“We hope that with the commission that was given to Calvert to do something that will not only brighten this place up, but to give some thoughts to people who might think otherwise of what they are doing in life.

“It’s very inspiring and we are going to continue with these. We are going to put another one in the library and we are going to clean this place up,” Jameson further stated.

Jones meanwhile said he was elated when he was contacted by the resort to be a part of the initiative.

“I thought, okay, they are sponsoring this entire project, why not do something that ties in with the industry and brings an appreciation for what we call our own together. And that’s where that synergy came about.

“So I thought that celebrating out national treasures with an emphasis and focus on things that we typically relate to as Vincentians, being the waterfall and the national bird would have been most appropriate,” he said. (AA)