Selected through the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT) Creative Residency Programme, the 2026 Conference Artists bring visual and performative practices into dialogue with the conference’s broader exploration of Caribbean creativity, memory, and contemporary cultural expression.

About the CBTT ResidEncy Programme

The CBTT Creative Residency Programme (CRP) offers the award of 2, 1-year residencies for local creatives in the visual and performing arts spheres, respectively, with the opportunity to work alongside professionals in fields related to the arts. The experience spans museum management and curating, art history, auditorium management, sound and lighting design, video production, stage management, and more. The programme sees both residents engaged in a mix of planned workshops, mentorship and learning sessions, and self-led research and writing.

Amy Li Baksh,
Visual Artist

Amy Li Baksh is a Trinbagonian writer, artist and mas-maker. She is especially interested in tactile traditional artforms, such as wire bending, block printing and embroidery, and how an engagement with these forms can help us re-evaluate our relationship to the Earth. Her interdisciplinary relationship to creativity includes an exploration of visual art, music and writing, and her work has been featured in publications such as BBC Future Planet and on the cover of Maisonneuve Magazine. She is also a regular contributor to the UWI Today Magazine. Throughout her multimodal practice, there is a thread of collaboration with nature and interrogation of the interconnectedness of all life. She is currently the visual artist in residence at Central Bank Museum’s creative residency for the 2026-2027 period, and her art has been exhibited at Arnim’s Art Galleria Exhibition: One Spirit, One Stage and Intersect Antigua’s Caribbean Feminist Stories Project.

She is currently pursuing an MPhil in Cultural Studies at The UWI St. Augustine Campus, where her research is focused on the relationship between ecology and traditional mas practices—particularly Trinbagonian Cow Mas. As one of the few remaining traditional cow mas practitioners, both her academic research and art are aimed at unfolding the ways that traditional practices can be understood as living forms of knowledge rather than as static pieces of archive; and how Caribbean ways of knowing give us unique vocabularies to understand ourselves.

Kedisha Thomas ,
Performance Artist

Kedisha Thomas is a Trinidad and Tobago–born creative artist, actor, poet, writer, director and educator whose multidisciplinary practice spans theatre, film, spoken word, cultural education and performance development. Currently serving as Creative Artist in Residence at the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago for the 2026–2027 period, Thomas has established herself as one of Trinidad and Tobago’s emerging contemporary cultural voices committed to advancing Caribbean storytelling through performance and artistic leadership. A Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting graduate and former Lead Drama Resident at the Tobago Performing Arts Company (2021–2025), she has performed in productions including Bitter Cassava, Once on This Island, Wine of Astonishment, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf and the Calypso Rose Musical in Canada. Her international and regional appearances include performances at Tobago Day celebrations in New York, the Bridgetown International Arts Festival in Barbados, the Trade and Investment Convention in Trinidad and Tobago and featured spoken word performances for Bacano Leaf, Love’s 2 and Tobago’s Solar Gray launch. In 2025, she was named Caribbean Posh Woman Performing Artiste of the Year and has received multiple awards for excellence in theatre, performance and youth arts leadership throughout her career.

Beyond performance, Thomas is recognized for her work in directing, writing, arts education and cultural development. She served as Writer and Director for the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition 2024 production of Ms. La Reine Rive and remains a major creative contributor to the Tobago Heritage Queens productions. She conceptualized and wrote DNA Productions’ first film, Something Funny?, directed four original productions for the Port of Spain Acting Students’ final showcases and has worked across radio drama, Carnival arts and community-based theatre initiatives. As Managing Director of The Blackboard Experience and an Acting Instructor with DNA Productions, Thomas continues to mentor emerging creatives while developing original Caribbean-centered work across stage and screen. In 2026, she made her literary debut with the release of The Boy Who Heard the World Differently, a children’s publication created in observance of Autism Awareness and centered on empathy and neurodiversity.