How I got involved in an exhibition on the Bounty at Deptford, Greater London.

My involvement with the project began in 2004. By forwarding several books – The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, by Caroline Alexander (ISBN 0-670-03133-X), Joseph Banks – A Life by Patrick O’Brian (ISBN 0-229-61628-2) – and several books on the Atlantic Slave Trade to Dr. Cuillin Bantock, the Company Secretary of The Art in Perpetuity Trust APTand an artist in his own right (see www.cuillinbantockpaintings.com), an exhibition was born.

APT (www.aptstudio.org) was established in 1995 as an artists’ centre with 37 studios, an educational space, and a large exhibition gallery. It is located in Deptford, off Deptford Creek on the south side of the Thames near Greenwich.

Early in 2006, it was realized that APT is located just three-quarters of a mile from the site of the old Royal Dockyards at Deptford. It was also discovered that part of the APT complex sits on the site of the pottery factory that made the original pots taken on the Bounty from Deptford to Tahiti in 1787 to transport breadfruit.

A proposal was put to the Management of the Trust to involve APT’s tenant-artists in the making of an exhibition related to the breadfruit-Bounty story. This proposal was accepted. The Management and tenant-artists of APT also unanimously passed a decision in mid-2006 to invite me to participate in this project due to my long-standing interest in the Bounty story and my original contact with the Company Secretary.

This project will involve about a third of the artists at APT, all professional Fine Artists, some with international reputations. The Bounty Project also appears to be the first time that this historical theme has been attempted in modern times.