For decades, the name Na­pari­ma Girls’ High School (NGHS) has been syn­ony­mous with more than just aca­d­e­m­ic pres­tige. In many house­holds across T&T and the di­as­po­ra, the school is rep­re­sent­ed by its icon­ic cook­book.

On Sun­day, March 29, that lega­cy takes its most am­bi­tious leap yet. La Pique Hill will be whol­ly trans­formed in­to Art Is­land, a pre­mi­um, all-in­clu­sive food and art fes­ti­val.

The con­cept is the brain­child of the school’s vi­su­al arts de­part­ment. While the school has long host­ed a stu­dent art ex­hi­bi­tion—nur­tured by re­cent­ly re­tired and re­tir­ing stal­warts Char­maine Ra­haman-Sieu­sankar and Al­li­son Mykoo—the event has un­der­gone a meta­mor­pho­sis.

“Art Is­land was born from a sim­ple but pow­er­ful be­lief: that great food, art, and cul­ture nat­u­ral­ly be­long to­geth­er,” ex­plains school’s prin­ci­pal Karen Bal­ly.

“What be­gan as a tra­di­tion­al ex­hi­bi­tion evolved in­to an Art Gala, and has now grown in­to our first food and art fes­ti­val—a cel­e­bra­tion that brings all of these el­e­ments to­geth­er un­der one roof.

“In 2023, our vi­su­al arts teacher Sophia Mitchell reimag­in­ing the an­nu­al ex­hi­bi­tion as a stu­dent art gala, el­e­vat­ing both the scope and am­bi­tion of the event. It is up­on this foun­da­tion that this fes­ti­val has been built,” she added.

For Bal­ly, the shift to a pre­mi­um fes­ti­val for­mat felt like a home­com­ing.

“This ex­pe­ri­ence felt like a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion for us, root­ed in a lega­cy that our school has long been proud of. Our cook­book re­flects how food has al­ways been wo­ven in­to the fab­ric of our iden­ti­ty. Art Is­land is an ex­ten­sion of that same spir­it.”

The am­bi­tion of the event is re­flect­ed in its scale.

At­ten­dees won’t just be view­ing art; they will be im­mersed in it. The school grounds will fea­ture mul­ti­ple ded­i­cat­ed gal­leries show­cas­ing works from cur­rent stu­dents, alum­nae, and staff. The in­ter­ac­tive na­ture of mod­ern art has al­so been in­clud­ed as guests will in­vit­ed to “splash” vi­brant colours on­to the cos­tume of a Moko Jumbie in a live, hands-on paint­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

The aes­thet­ic is bold­ly Caribbean, in­spired by the trop­i­cal hues of lo­cal flo­ra and fau­na. The art is­land con­cept ex­tends in­to the cu­rat­ed food vil­lage.

“The vi­sion was to cre­ate a sin­gle im­mer­sive space where guests can ex­plore the work of our tal­ent­ed artists while en­joy­ing el­e­vat­ed culi­nary of­fer­ings,” Bal­ly added.

Pa­trons can ex­pect every­thing from a live pas­ta sta­tion, sa­vory baos, to lo­cal sta­ples like cur­ry crab dumplings, bake and shark, and dou­bles. The “sweet side” of the is­land is equal­ly rep­re­sent­ed, fea­tur­ing of­fer­ings such as pas­sion­fruit cheese­cake and vanil­la bean matcha. There will al­so be live en­ter­tain­ment.

“While the evening promis­es lux­u­ry, its heart re­mains teth­ered to the school’s mot­to: Non No­bis Solum Sed Om­nibus (not for our­selves on­ly, but for oth­ers),” Bal­ly said.

Pro­ceeds from Art Is­land are ear­marked for crit­i­cal stu­dent pro­grammes, the pur­chase of mod­ern re­sources, and fu­ture build­ing projects.

Ac­cord­ing to Bal­ly, “This event is a tes­ta­ment to the ded­i­ca­tion of teach­ers, vol­un­teers, busi­ness­es, and sup­port­ers who have gen­er­ous­ly do­nat­ed their time. Their ef­forts are not dri­ven by per­son­al gain but by a shared com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties that will ben­e­fit our stu­dents. We are in­vest­ing in the fu­ture of our young peo­ple.”