PORT-AU-PRINCE — The Haitian artistic community is mourning one of its members, art critic Mireille Pérodin Jérôme, who died days shy of her 71st birthday on April 13.
“Mireille Pérodin has greatly contributed to the promotion of Haitian plastic arts,” said Minister of Culture Emmelie Prophète Milcé in a statement released Saturday, the day Jérôme died. “[She] made it possible to discover or get to know artists better by producing texts on their work.”
A cause of death remains unknown as of this publication, though some say she had been ill.
Jérôme married renowned artist Jean-René Jérôme, who died in March 1991, whose works helped revitalize the sensitive aspects of Haitian plastic art. The family founded Les Ateliers Jérôme in 1985, which became a reference space for plastic art in Haiti under Mireille Jérôme’s longtime direction.
Jérôme — an art critic, gallery owner, art curator, Jérôme was also a teacher — also made an impression with the exhibition “Haiti two centuries of artistic creation” held at the Grand Palais in Paris from November 19, 2014 to February 15, 2015. She was recognized as the co-curator of this exhibition.
Born in Port-au-Prince on April 13, 1952, Jérôme attended the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) and the Faculty of Human Sciences (FASCH), where she later taught history and geography in secondary school.
After pursuing graduate studies in Cuba in 1995, Mireille focused on Caribbean art. In 2011, she also completed an internship in the field of museum art at the Center Georges Pompidou to further improve her skills.
Mireille invests body and soul in the promotion of Haitian visual arts in all their forms. For this, she has been able to share her skills in various organizations such as the Art Center as vice-president, the Culture Creation Foundation as president, member of the International Association of Art Critics, Caribbean region (AICA Caribbean) and founder of Les Ateliers Jérôme.
For nearly 36 years, the gallerist collaborated via Ateliers Jérôme with institutions, both public and private cultural organizations, in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, France, Martinique, Quebec and Florida, according to her art gallery’s website.
Over the weekend, an outpouring of appreciation from such institutions made their way to the public.
“Mireille Pérodin Jérôme was one of the most remarkable contemporary promoters of Haitian art,” said the Art Center in the face of the death of the art curator. “The gallery owner contributed to the revitalization of the Art Center after the earthquake of January 12, 2010.”
“Mireille Pérodin Jérôme, will forever remain in our memories as a passionate of Haitian art and a tireless defender of local creativity, a great activist for the advancement of our dear Haiti,” says the Fondation Culture Création for its part. “She has dedicated her life to the promotion of art and culture, and her legacy will live on in the minds and hearts of those she touched.”
The Culture Creation Foundation emphasizes that Mireille has never ceased with her entourage to promote Haitian culture and creativity, supporting local artists and promoting their talent across the country and beyond.
UNESCO also saluted the memory of and the work of Jérôme, who is for this United Nations organization a great lady of Haitian culture.
“Teacher, gallery owner, exhibition curator, art critic, patron and mentor for many, Mireille Pérodin Jérôme was an inspiring citizen, committed for more than 40 years to the promotion and development of Art in Haiti and in the Caribbean,” UNESCO wrote on its Facebook page.
