The University of Guyana spent most of the year 2023 celebrating the 60th anniversary of the institution which was founded in 1963, opening its halls to academic instruction on October 1, in that year. These celebrations witnessed a very wide range of activities, none richer and deeper than those extolling the university’s involvement in the arts – in particular, the performing and visual arts.
Most outstanding among these was the “exhibition in honour of the 60th Anniversary of the University of Guyana” titled Musings, Guyanese Folktales, & Figures of the Ramlila presented by the Division of Creative Arts within the Department of Language and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Education and Humanities. This was mounted on October 16 -28 in the National Gallery of Art at Castellani House.
As we have previously observed, the University of Guyana has had an extremely valuable history of close relations with the fine arts dating back to the 1970s and the time when it first occupied buildings on the Turkeyen Campus (1969 – 1970). These include notable highlights such as the Rainforest Tapestry by the legendary Marjorie Broodhagen, the imposing sculpture “Royal Slaves” by Arthur Goodland and the first academic programme by Stanley Greaves who founded the Division of Creative Arts in 1975.
