The UWI Museum will be remembering the life and work of AD Scott, engineer, builder, art patron and artist through an exhibition of pieces from the UWI’s AD Scott Collection, starting Monday,  June 16 – the 10th anniversary of his death.
 
Scott, who died on June 16, 2004, was named Resident Engineer at the University College of the West Indies in 1949, soon after his return from Canada where he had studied civil engineering and worked for some years. He famously masterminded the move of an old rum store from Gayle in Trelawny to Mona where it was reconstructed as the ecumenical University Chapel. He was also involved in the engineering or construction of several Kingston landmarks, including the Palisadoes Airport (now the Norman Manley International), the National Studium built ahead of the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1963, , and Jamaica’s first multi-storey apartment building at Manor. The construction of the Olympia International Art Centre in 1974 was his last major building project, according to his widow Mrs Jean Scott. After that, his main focus was on Jamaican art and his own painting and sculptor.
 
AD Scott was acknowledged as a major supporter of Jamaican art and artists, especially in post-Independence Jamaica. In 1994, he gave 25 pieces by well-known artists to the UWI, in response to a request from the Faculty of Social Sciences, as part of a call for “renewed interest in the aesthetic and a recommitment to the notion that The University of the West Indies should be a leading repository for the best art from the Caribbean and elsewhere.” (Prof Brian Meeks, speaking in March 1994) Fifteen pieces from the collection, most of which is normally housed in the UWI Main Library at Mona, will be on display at the museum for a month, appropriately including the Kingston on the Edge (KOTE) 2014 celebration.
 
The UWI Museum, located in the UWI Regional Headquarters Building and open weekdays from 10 – 4, is two years old this month. Its main focus is on aspects of the UWI history and development and on the region that the university serves.