News Releases

UWI Visual Arts Students assist with Gift to the City of Port-of-Spain

For Release Upon Receipt - July 27, 2022

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago.  Wednesday 27 July, 2022 – The UWI, Visual Arts Unit recently collaborated with the Embassy of Colombia in Trinidad and Tobago, and the National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) of Trinidad and Tobago to create a mural. 

The large-scale painting, titled “The Caribbean Sea Which Unites Us” is a gift from the Colombian Government to Trinidad’s capital city of Port of Spain. The artwork, 115 feet x 12 feet, is located on NALIS’s Abercromby street wall. The mural was conceived by Colombian artist Paula Osorio Tintadelrio. Two participants of UWI’s Visual Arts Degree programme, Ms. Shania Warris and Ms. Shireen Ragoobir, assisted Osorio with painting and bringing her ideas to life. 

Shania Warris is a current, final-year, visual arts degree student, and Shireen Ragoobir is a graduate of the visual arts degree programme, who now works at NALIS as a graphic artist. Warris and Ragoobir spent weeks working to make the mural a reality. The completed work is a vibrant, creative collaboration between artists from the region. It emphasizes our similarities, rather than what divides us. The Caribbean Sea is incorporated in the mural as a connecting force, with its waters washing our shores, and expanding what we define and understand as “Caribbean.”  

Images in the mural include cultural scenes, along with flora and fauna. Viewers can enjoy pictures of hummingbirds from both Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad’s Maracas beach is depicted, while also recognizing that “Maracas” is a Spanish word for an instrument filled with percussive elements that produce sound when shaken. Scenes of carnival and umbrella-covered market vendors depict sites of community and exchange. 

“Libraries are critical resources for accessing knowledge about ourselves and the world. Art also functions as an important vehicle for knowledge—for understanding who we are and imagining who we want to be. Art fosters dialogue. This collaboration is a natural fit,” said Dr. Marsha Pearce, Lecturer and Coordinator of the Visual Arts Unit at the UWI St Augustine Campus. “I am happy to have worked with NALIS and the Embassy of Colombia in Trinidad and Tobago to produce a work that is a site of public knowledge, a work of art that encourages rich conversation between our countries. I am proud of Shania Warris’ and Shireen Ragoobir’s contributions to art that will impact our cityscape and our people,” she added. 

The mural was launched at a ceremony held on July 20, 2022, marking Colombia’s 212 anniversary of its independence from Spain. 

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About The University of the West Indies 

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region. 

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. 

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world. 

The UWI has been consistently ranked among the top universities globally by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education (THE). In the latest World University Rankings 2022, released in September 2021, The UWI moved up an impressive 94 places from last year. In the current global field of some 30,000 universities and elite research institutes, The UWI stands among the top 1.5%. 

The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists since its debut in the rankings in 2018. In addition to its leading position in the Caribbean, it is also in the top 20 for Latin America and the Caribbean and the top 100 global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the leading universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action. 

For more, visit www.uwi.edu. 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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