“I thought this was a very important exhibition because these are very live issues that people are dealing with every day of their lives,” said curator Linda Cunningham at the opening ceremony on Wednesday. The exhibit runs through July 28.

The show, which features 50 paintings, installations, drawings, photographs and video, also is part of the “Caribbean Crossroads” exhibition series dealing with the Caribbean Diaspora, organized by El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan.

El Museo del Barrio in the East Harlem neighbourhood known as El Barrio, Harlem’s The Studio Museum, and the Queens Museum of Art are collaborating in staging “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” – the major art event this summer in New York.

About 500 paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and multimedia projects by over 350 artists have been included in a survey of the art of the Caribbean and its Diaspora from the dawn of the Haitian Revolution in 1791 to present day.