In Common Ink – OCAD University at FUZE Caribbean Art Fair 2025
In October 2025, OCAD University participated in the FUZE Caribbean Art Fair in Nassau, Bahamas—an annual platform dedicated to showcasing the vibrancy, diversity, and interconnectedness of Caribbean and diasporic contemporary art. The 2025 edition embraced the theme “All a We”, celebrating shared histories, collective creativity, and the ways in which Caribbean identities and experiences resonate across borders.
As part of this international gathering, OCAD University hosted a dedicated booth presenting In Common Ink, a collaborative printmaking project developed through the International Programs & Collaboration Office (IPCO). The project highlighted OCAD U’s commitment to fostering global learning, cross-cultural exchange, and community-engaged practice within art and design education.
Project Concept: In Common Ink
In Common Ink invited participating artists to explore how ink—as material, metaphor, and medium—can reveal what we hold in common across place, culture, and experience. Through mark-making, repetition, layering, and gesture, artists were encouraged to consider how personal narratives intertwine with collective histories, and how printmaking can act as a connective thread among Caribbean and diasporic communities.
The conceptual direction for In Common Ink emerged through collaboration between the IPCO team, artist and OCAD U Chair of Illustration Shea Chang and Bahamian artist/curator John Cox. Chang’s expertise in print and risograph processes helped shape the project’s emphasis on shared, iterative mark-making, not only contributed to the project’s conceptual foundation but also led a hands-on workshop for participating artists, supporting the creation of works that embodied the project’s core values of collaboration, accessibility, and collective creativity.
