An upcoming exhibition at Fort Frederik Museum on St. Croix will spotlight the people, places and stories that have shaped the Virgin Islands’ built environment while honoring two artists whose work helped preserve and interpret that history, the Virgin Islands Architecture Center for Built Heritage and Crafts, Inc. announced in a press release.
The Virgin Islands Architecture Center for Built Heritage and Crafts and the Department of Planning and Natural Resources will present “When the Walls Answer” from 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the museum in Frederiksted, according to a press release. The exhibition features works by the late Gerville René Larsen, Crucian Master Artist El’Roy Simmonds and more than 20 Virgin Islands artists and student artists exploring the theme of built heritage.
Organizers said Larsen is being recognized for his vision of transforming the Old Barracks property in Christiansted into a center for architecture, design, building trades and historic preservation, a concept that later helped shape the development of the architecture center and its work with DPNR’s Historic Preservation Commission. Simmonds is being honored for a lifetime of artistic contributions that document and interpret Virgin Islands culture and history.
“We are honoring two extraordinary Crucian artists who have contributed work to the Virgin Islands aesthetic which will resonate into the future,” said Mary Dema, chair of the VIAC board.
Monica Marin, territorial curator for DPNR’s Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums and curator of the exhibition, said Larsen’s work helped advance efforts to recognize the Afro-Caribbean craftspeople responsible for building the territory’s historic towns.
“Gerville Larsen’s discourse shifting artwork and cultural preservation advocacy paved the way for us to properly credit the Afro-Caribbean craftspeople who built our historic towns,” Marin said in the release. “The work of El’Roy Simmonds reshapes the cultural landscape and challenged the exclusion of authentic Virgin Islands narratives in art.”
According to the release, artists were invited to create works in which walls “answer” back, drawing attention to the stories, creativity and cultural memory embedded within the territory’s historic structures. Marin said organizers hope the exhibition will encourage conversations about preservation, justice and self-determination.
Featured artists include La Vaughn Belle, Lloyd “Dove” Braffith, Elwin Joseph, Lucien Downes, Sy Sebastien, Regina Keels, Stephanie Chalana Brown, Janet Cook-Rutnik, Edney Freeman, Nathan Bishop, Luca Gasperi, Jaliyah Gunnell, George Graham, Nicole Canegata, Mike Walsh, Johanna Bermúdez-Ruiz, Vegan Ellis, Waldemar Brodhurst and students from VIAC’s VAST 2025 summer program.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tickets are $25 and available through VIAC. Proceeds will support the VIAC VAST Summer Program for high school students, according to the release.
Click here to purchase tickets.
