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Artistic Heritage
Delving into the arts scene in Bermuda can be a rewarding adventure, revealing a past rich in tradition and a present teeming with creativity.
By Laura T. Gorham
 The global recession has forced arts organisations everywhere to rethink their approach and focus on actively engaging audiences. As a result, Bermuda’s arts scene has grown more active than ever, offering innovative exhibitions with programming that encourages participation, learning and enjoyment. The arts experience provides a greater understanding of the island, its history and culture.
SOME HISTORY
Bermuda’s first arts were the practical “living” arts: architecture, furniture, silver and shipbuilding. The story of the fine arts begins with itinerant artists in the 18th century: Joseph Blackburn, who painted oil portraits of the local gentry in 1752 and 1753, followed by John Green in 1765, who became the first resident portrait artist. The early part of the 19th century saw draughtsmen such as Thomas Driver, Edmund Gilling Hallewell and Gaspard Le Marchant Tupper, who all recorded their subtropical surroundings in works that reveal as much about contemporary attitudes towards art and empire as they do about the appearance of the islands. British watercolourist Edward James recorded much of life in Bermuda from about 1860 to 1877, including marine activity during the American Civil War and news events such as the opening of the Causeway in 1874.
 The latter part of the 19th century saw the new industry of tourism enticing international visitors. Painters took advantage of the mild winters to record the lush foliage and vibrant landscapes en plein air. Writers Mark Twain and Eugene O’Neill, and artists Winslow Homer, Albert Gleizes and even Georgia O’Keeffe numbered among those taking respite in Bermuda.
In the 20th century, tourism brought wealth to the islands. Bermuda’s first prominent black artist, Charles Lloyd Tucker, returned in 1953 to become the first art teacher at Berkeley Institute and influenced a generation. The Bermuda Society of Arts was founded to support the burgeoning arts community in the 1950s and remains a thriving venue for artists. The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard opened in the West End in 1984 with a number of artist studios, an exhibition space and a retail gallery.
The last 20 years has seen unprecedented growth in Bermuda’s art world with the opening of the Bermuda National Gallery in Hamilton, the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art in Paget, and Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation in Devonshire as a community classroom and contemporary gallery.
MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS
The following is a selection of cultural venues and public art sites. Check local listings for current exhibitions and programming.
 Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard
Founded in 1984, it has a regular exhibition schedule, selling gallery, gift shop and four artist studios. A plein air painters group meets once a week to paint. (234-2809, artbermuda.bm)
Bermuda Historical Society
In the home of William B. Perot, Bermuda’s first postmaster, it displays a collection of Bermuda-made silver, furniture and paintings, fine china, maps, currency and Boer War artefacts (295-2487, apbermingham@logic.bm)
Bermuda National Gallery
An art museum committed to inspiring our world with art, with permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. At the Ondaatje Wing: History of Art in Bermuda — a chronologically arranged exhibition of fine and decorative arts conveys the island’s social and economic history, while contextualising the island’s contemporary artists. Exhibitions in 2011 include: contemporary Bermuda artist Will Collieson; French 20th-century artist Élisée Maclet; and Decoding the European from the Old Master Collection. Check newpapers for full schedule of lectures, tours and workshops. (295-9428, bng.bm )
Bermuda National Trust
Journey to Bermuda’s past at three historic properties: The Globe Hotel and Tucker House in St. George, and the Georgian-style Verdmont in Smith’s Parish.
The Globe Hotel houses the Confederate Museum, including the exhibition Rogues and Runners: Bermuda and the American Civil War, which explains the boost given to Bermuda’s economy by blockade runners during the U.S. conflict and later by Bermudian rum runners.
Tucker House is filled with family furniture and other heirlooms and was the first property acquired by the trust in 1939. Along with furniture and silver, Tucker House displays paintings, including portraits by Joseph Blackburn.
Verdmont, built at the turn of the 18th century, became a museum in 1957. It houses an impressive collection of early portraits, decorative art objects and perhaps the finest furniture collection on the Island, with pieces created in Bermuda from 1700 to 1800. The 18th century portraiture includes the works of Joseph Blackburn and John Green. The old kitchen, thought to have been slave quarters, is part of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail. (236-6483, bnt.bm)
BUYING ART IN BERMUDA
Most of Bermuda's art organisations have selling exhibitions or a retail area that offer artwork for sale. They are good resources and helpful starting points for finding the perfect purchase. Regular showings can be found at a number of commercial galleries, offices, coffee houses and restaurants. Listings can be found in the local newspapers. These include but are not limited to:
 Galleries and Alternative Spaces
- Ace Gallery, Ace Insurance Building, Woodbourne Avenue, Pembroke
- Alfred Birdsey Studio, 5 Stowe Hill, Paget.
- Belinda Tartaglia Gallery, Somers Wharf Complex, 14F Water St., St. George’s.
- Bermuda Craft Market, Cooperage Building, Maritime Lane, Royal Naval Dockyard, Sandys.
- Colonial Insurance, Reid Street, Hamilton.
- Common Ground, Chancery Lane, Hamilton.
- Crisson & Hind Gallery, Front Street, Hamilton. Specialises in African Shona stone sculpture from Zimbabwe.
- Desmond Fountain Gallery at The Elbow Beach Bermuda Hotel, South Shore Road, Paget. Works by sculptor Desmond Fountain and other Bermuda artists.
- Nicholas Lusher Antiques & Fine Art, buys and sells by appointment only.
- Rock Island Cafe, 48 Reid Street, Hamilton.
- Sharon Wilson Studio, 2 Turtle Place, Southampton.
- The Windjammer II at The Fairmont Hamilton Princess, Pitts Bay Road, Hamilton. Local artists, organised exhibitions, often an artist actively painting in the gallery who is happy to speak with the visitors.
Public Art in Bermuda
St. George’s:
Ordinance Island: Bronze of Sir George Somers by Desmond Fountain.
Drew’s Bay, Barry Road: As part of Bermuda’s 400th Anniversary, Will Collieson was commissioned to create a representation of the cross left by the survivors of the Sea Venture.
St. David’s:
Battery at Great Head Park: Lost at Sea Memorial by Bill (Mussey) Ming.
Royal Naval Dockyard:
Commissioner’s House, National Museum of Bermuda: Hall of History by Bermuda’s surrealist Graham Foster.
Hamilton:
Par-la-Ville Park: John & Nelga Young II Sculpture Garden, BNG Collection.
Wesley Square, East of City Hall: Chesley Trott’s bronze When Voices Rise, commemorating the 1959 Theatre Boycott — Bermuda’s definitive civil rights moment.
Barr’s Bay Park: Chesley Trott’s bronze We Arrive honours the 1835 post-Emancipation arrival of the American slave ship Enterprise.
Cabinet Office grounds, Front Street: Carlos Dowling’s Sally Bassett.
City Hall steps: George Lundeen’s Storybooks (1992). Interior: Bill (Mussey) Ming’s Family Circle, (1997–2004).
Anglican Cathedral Reredos, Church St.: Christ and 14 Saints by Canadian sculptress Byllee Lang (1908–1966).
East Broadway at the entrance to #8 Dock: Eddie Lima’s 1974 concrete Longtails.
East Broadway, Foot of the Lane: Desmond Fountain’s bronze tribute to Johnny Barnes. Created in the 1990s for a living Bermuda icon who can still be seen daily at the Crow Lane roundabout waving each morning.
Bookish Bermuda
Perhaps Mark Twain said it best: "You can go to heaven if you want to. I'd rather go to Bermuda."
In the late 19th century Twain was a frequent visitor to the island chain and did much to boost Bermuda's early tourism efforts by writing about the destination in magazines and books.
But Twain was by no means the only literary icon to fall in love with Bermuda. Other writers captivated by Bermuda's classic beauty include Rudyard Kipling, C.S. Forester, Edna Ferber and E.B. White.
 In the 1920s, playwright Eugene O'Neill lived in Warwick Parish, where he worked on The Great God Brown, Lazarus Laughed and Strange Interlude at Spithead, the one-time home of Hezekiah Frith.
The infamous privateer is said to haunt the house, but that did not stop Noel Coward from taking up residence there some three decades later. The world-famous playwright stayed in Bermuda for two years, working on a ballet and the musical Sail Away.
But perhaps it was Katherine Anne Porter who loved Bermuda best. During her long, turbulent life, she lived all over the world, but it was in Bermuda that she said she felt most at home.
"I was never so happy, never so straight in my mind, never so hopeful," she wrote to a friend shortly after arriving on the island. "I had never dreamed of so much."
 DID YOU KNOW? Bermuda's earliest artists were itinerant British painters and military topographers.
DID YOU KNOW? Winslow Homer painted 19 watercolours in Bermuda between 1899 and 1901.
DID YOU KNOW? John Lennon was so inspired by the "Double Fantasy" freesias he saw at Bermuda's Botanical Gardens that he named his classic album after them.
DID YOU KNOW? Georgia O'Keefe produced 12 known works in Bermuda in 1934, including a pencil-and-ink sketch titled "The Banyan Tree," valued today at more than $75,000.
Plan to visit to Bermuda now by checking availability and booking online. It's fast and easy — click here.
Get more information about Bermuda's art galleries and artists using the link at the top of the page.
Belinda Tartaglia Gallery
Somers Wharf Complex, 14F
Water St., St. George’s
Tel: 297-0909
Belinda Tartaglia Gallery is located on Water Street in the Somers Wharf Complex at the heart of the quaint Town of St. George. This unique gallery offers fine art, antiques, antique paintings, and contemporary, vintage and antique prints. The gallery owner/artist is on hand, usually painting or working on giving a new life to a discarded object. This is one gallery you definitely won’t want to miss.
 Bermuda Arts Centre
at Dockyard
Maritime Lane, Royal Naval Dockyard, Sandys
Tel: 234-2809
Website: artbermuda.bm
Voted Bermuda’s Best of Bermuda’s Best Art Gallery in 2006, Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard is one of the island’s premium galleries, featuring both traditional and contemporary art, all created by local artists. On location are four working studios where you can meet the artists and see them at work, including an oil painter, a cedar-wood sculptor, a jeweller, and textile and ceramic artists. The gallery also has a large selection of prints and locally crafted gifts, ensuring no one need leave empty-handed. The centre is open daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Bermuda National Gallery
City Hall and Arts Centre, Church Street, Hamilton
Tel: 295-9428
E-mail: director@bng.bm
Website: bng.bm
Located at the City Hall and Arts Centre in the heart of Hamilton, the Bermuda National Gallery is at the centre of the islands’ vibrant arts scene. Each year, BNG shows several temporary exhibitions, with the Ondaatje Wing committed to telling Bermuda’s rich, multicultural history through fine and decorative arts. The gallery believes art is for everyone, so admission is free. Join free tours each Thursday at 10 a.m. Call to confirm. Hours of operation are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed on public holidays.
The Birdsey Studio
5 Stowe Hill, Paget
Tel: 236-6658
E-mail: linberg@northrock.bm
Jo Birdsey Linberg, daughter of Bermuda’s first modern artist, Alfred Birdsey, painted for many years with her father at the Birdsey Studio before his death in 1996. Today she continues the family tradition. Her impressionistic landscapes, figurative paintings and whimsical animals, created predominantly in watercolour, reflect her mentor’s artistic legacy through simple lines and Oriental-inspired brushwork, while they also establish Jo’s own artistic and creative stamp. Her watercolours have been exhibited in Bermuda and overseas, whilst collected and commissioned internationally. Jo’s paintings reflect her love of life and Bermuda. Her father’s spirit is alive and well in her humour, hospitality and creative energy. The Birdsey Studio, in the back garden of the family home, remains a special place for many, with its tranquil natural setting and rather unusual appearance. Studio hours are 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays. Appointments
are recommended.
 The Desmond Fountain Gallery
Elbow Beach Hotel
60 South Shore Road, Paget Tel: 232-3955
E-mail:
fountaingallery@logic.bm
Website: desmondfountaingallery.com
The Desmond Fountain Gallery is an essential destination for art lovers, showcasing international and local artists’ work alongside the oeuvres of acclaimed Bermudian sculptor Desmond Fountain FRBS. Fountain creates eminently collectible bronzes, etchings and paintings, the smaller works being easily transportable. Listed in publications such as Debrett’s People of Today and recipient of local and international honours, Fountain’s commissions take him far afield and his collectors are global. Aficionados can tour his public sculptures throughout Bermuda.
Verdmont is a grand home built at the turn of the 18th century by John and Elizabeth Dickinson on 93 acres, stretching from South Shore to Flatts. It is rumoured that the Dickinsons paid for the house with booty from a pirate raid in the Indian Ocean. Since 1957, the elegant old home has operated as a museum. The furniture displayed here is the best created in Bermuda from 1700 to 1800, and other Verdmont treasures are equally impressive. They include the works of John Green, whose portraits of Thomas Smith and his daughters grace the house in which the artist once lived.
Relax, enjoy, save and see Bermuda by bus. A blue or pink pole indicates bus stops. If the pole is topped with blue, the bus travels from Hamilton; if the pole is topped pink, the route is toward Hamilton.
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