On April 10, as part of the DGI April Gathering in St Vincent, we were kindly hosted by the Univetrsiry of West Indies to hold a hybrid discussion about the Museum of Care in St Vincent, the Visual Assembly as a Playground project, and other artistic and activist initiatives that the DGI is planning to launch in St Vincent. 

We had presentations from: 

— Andris Brinkmanis: talked about several artistic initiatives from around the world that engage the local communities in participatory activities — like building a playground, starting a community garden or making food; 

— Nika Dubrovsky: presented the plan for the Museum of Care in St Vincent and talked about different aspects of this future project, including the reviving the abandoned ship, curating the Survival Kit Collection and building a Visual Assembly Playground; 

— Alastair Parvin: introduced the Visual Assembly Playground system in more detail from the architect / engineer point of view and showed how the system can be adapted to different community initiatives and constantly reshaped by the users;

— Clive Russel talked about different design initiatives that can become a source of inspiration in our fight against capitalism and commercialisation of art.

Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte, who could not join us, have shared their talks as separte videos – see them below!

After the presentation by the speakers, the group offline and online discussed the specific conditions in St Vincent and the Grenadines in relation to the Museum of Care and the Visual Assembly and the Playground project.

We thank everyone who joined offline and online! The work goes on, and we look forward to our next gathering in St Vincent in October.