By THEA RUTHERFORD, Guardian National Correspondent, thea@nasguard.com

When a great artist dies, his influence inevitably lives on. And when the art community mourns, its tears flow into memories that beg for something more inspiring than an epitaph or a statue in his memorial. They beg for continuance, for a way to honor the fallen that mirrors the passion that permeated their lives.

And so it was with the late Brent Malone, a chameleon of an artist who could not be pinned to any one genre, but seemed to rediscover himself as an artist and re-opened the minds of his audience throughout his life.

Malone's death, so much like his life, has inspired an avenue for young artists to follow their dreams of becoming artists who would not have to separate creating art from making a living. Shortly after his memorial service in late February 2004, Malone's family and friends worked with the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas to establish an Artist-in-Residence Program in his honor. The Brent Malone Artist-in-Residence Program would be awarded to a promising Bahamian artist each year, giving the individual the crystalline opportunity to work solely on art.

The recipient would be given free studio space, free art supplies, a stipend to live on and time – all the time it would take in a year to produce enough work to fill an exhibition at the end of the residency. The hope was that the earnings from the sale of the work at the exhibition would be enough to help the artist make the transition into life as a full-time artist.

Though not abandoned, the program still awaits adequate funding to take flight.

"We're still trying to fund-raise for it," said NAGB director Erica James. "We realized it wasn't an inexpensive thing to do."

Planned to continue in perpetuity, the Brent Malone Artist-in-Residence Fund needs $600,000 to finance itself for the future. At this point James surmised that the gallery could fund one artist for one year, but to do so would be to do Malone's memory an injustice.

"We can fund one artist for one year, but if we do, will we ever be able to fund another person? I think Brent Malone is a large enough person in Bahamian art history – he's a huge figure – and it would almost do him a disservice to just do something once."

Like many of the artists who stand to benefit from the program, Malone knew from an early age that he wanted to study art. He recalled telling family and friends that he wanted to study art at the age of 12, making the declaration at a time when homegrown artists were rare and making art one's career hardly heard of.

"I let it be known that all future presents be in cash because I wanted to 'go away' to study art and become an artist," he told C. E. Huggins in the book "Brent Malone Retrospective 1962 - 1992, Central Bank Gallery, Nassau, Bahamas."

Malone went on to fulfill his dreams of studying art, attending local and British institutions before returning to The Bahamas in the early 1960s. From then until his death he created art, etching himself indelibly into the Bahamian art scene, and eventually its history. He also owned and operated a series of art galleries: Bahamian Pottery, The Loft Art Gallery, Matinee Art Gallery, The Temple Gallery and Marlborough Antiques.

Perhaps through remembering his own youthful years spent dreaming of becoming an artist, Malone was able to relate to the host of young artists of another generation that he encouraged.

"Throughout the years my father always encouraged artists by being a mentor," said Marysa Malone, the artist's daughter. "Antonius Roberts was the first one. He took him under his wing and gave him a job and encouraged him in art. I remember throughout the years lots of artists would come by the house and he would help them figure out how to get into art schools."

The fund in her father's honor is more than just a tribute to a legendary Bahamian artist, but the passing of a baton from artist to artist for the ultimate goal of cultural continuity and evolution.

"If you don't encourage young artists we won't go forward culturally. The Bahamas is doing very well internationally for a country of our size and our population, on the art front we're doing phenomenally well, but just because were doing well doesn't mean we can sit back and relax."

James, the NAGB director, said that the gallery will probably have to form a fundraising committee to resuscitate the fund and plan regular fundraising events. But she believes that a national attitude of giving to the arts in general needs to be fostered.

"I think it's unrealistic to just depend on the government to provide [funding]," she said. "It has to be important enough to the people for us to be in partnership with the government in some ways to fund arts and culture in the country. The government can do so much, but it comes from the people."