By Zoila Palma: Belizean artist, curator and exhibition designer Ilona N. Smiling has been selected as the winner of the third edition of the Marie-Solanges Apollon Programme, which focuses on Central America and promotes research into underrepresented artists.
The fellowship is offered by AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, and this year is dedicated to advancing research on Central American women and nonbinary artists.
Smiling currently serves as Director of the Museum of Belize and Houses of Culture, as well as the Museum of Belizean Art. Through the fellowship, she will research the career of Lola Delgado, an under-researched Belizean female artist, with a focus on documenting her artistic development, influences, techniques and contributions to Belize’s art history. Smiling said many Belizean artists have produced significant works across generations, but their lives and artistic practices have not been comprehensively documented, particularly those of women.
Her research will examine Delgado’s formative years, early works and the motivations behind her artistic practice, including her distinctive representations of women through stylized, faceless female figures. The project will also explore how exhibitions, audiences and Belize’s cultural environment influenced Delgado’s career, helping to address gaps in the historical documentation of Belizean art.
Smiling has played a key role in establishing the Museum of Belizean Art, Belize’s first art museum, and has curated exhibitions highlighting the country’s artistic heritage. Her selection for the fellowship provides an opportunity to bring greater recognition to Belizean women artists and strengthen research into their contributions to the region’s cultural history.
The Marie-Solanges Apollon Programme is supported by artist Manuel Mathieu and named in honour of his grandmother, a Black immigrant woman in Canada who embodied the role of a central pillar in her family and community.
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