People who are drawn to the arts are encouraged to go online to view and vote for young artists who are taking part in an online art competition called the Belize Pantheon Fantastic. The event is the brainchild of Dr. Harold Young, an attorney who wrote a theme for the competition. His story is rooted in Belize’s natural wonders, namely, the Sleeping Giant. While some people say the Sleeping Giant lies along the Hummingbird Highway, there are others who argue that the George Price Highway near Gracie Rock also has a series of hills that could be where the imaginary giant sleeps. The professor has created a platform to release some pent up Belizean creativity to create a virtual exhibit, complete with 3-D imagery. 

Young, Organizer, Belize Pantheon Fantastic

“We have all the entries in and we’re now launching the virtual exhibits, so we have a 3D exhibit that all of Belize – the public and the whole world – can go and look at the work and see the sponsors, see the story of the Sleeping Giant, which is the base story that frames the artwork and also there will be an interactive component where the viewers can vote on which piece they like the best, so there’s a viewer’s choice award along with the other awards. I felt that because of the pandemic and with schools being in flux and unemployment – of course not everybody in that age range are in schools – I thought there might have been some frustration and some pent up creativity and energy, so I thought it’d be good to try and tap into that. One of the things that we also wanted to do is to try and find new artists who may never have had a platform before to exhibit their work.”