In collaboration with Revolution Gallery in Kingston, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator held its International Cultural Arts Exchange in Jamaica this year. Conceived by Gallery Founder and Director Rosie Gordon-Wallace, the cultural arts exchange is an innovative programme that brings together artists, curators, writers and cultural workers to engage in a rigorous programme of exchange, exhibition, studio visits and workshop intensives in the Caribbean Diaspora and beyond. A highlight of this year's exchange was the exhibition at Revolution Gallery entitled Living Sculpture, co-curated by Rosie Gordon-Wallace and Carol Campbell. Artists from Jamaica and the diaspora were invited to explore and engage sculpture, performance, installation and site specific works that considered the significance of the body in both the creation and the content of the art, as well as the importance of public art as a means of engaging community and defining the language of a culture.

Participating artists, writers, curators and culture-makers represented an incredible range of cultural backgrounds, nationalities, homelands and artistic practices. Rosie Gordon-Wallace described the exchange as an opportunity 'to have a conversation with ourselves, about ourselves.' The ICE programme interprets the 'ourselves' in the most expansive way, engaging the concept of 'diaspora' as a way to understand and dialogue about the deeply creative and innovative ways that we approach artmaking, culture and community.

A highlight of this year's International Cultural Exchange was the announcement of the Eglantine Melita Buchanan-Gordon Scholarship. This year's award honoured Nicole Winter, a student in the Ceramics Department at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. As a way to continue the diasporic dialogue, Winter has been invited to Diaspora Vibe Gallery in Miami to be an artist-in-residence, as part of the gallery's 'Off the Wall: Experimental Art' exhibition series.

A diaspora is about the dispersion of a people. Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator looks at the places where our paths cross and intersect, how they sound and who is standing at these points of connection. We live in a world where new diaspora are ever emerging, where we are continuously called upon to re-invent art, family, geography, culture and where the hybrid voice is what we come to call centre and home.

Visit Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator www.diasporavibe.com and Revolution Gallery, 44 Lady Musgrave Road, St Andrew.

Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Curator/Director, Diaspora Vibe Gallery. - Contributed photos