Radiant sunlight and abundant scenery, amongst other factors, draw visual artists to tiny Bermuda and inspire local creativity with a variety of studios, galleries, museums, art markets and more.
By Nicholas Lusher
Bermuda’s land area may be small, but its participation in the arts is immense. Over the past 20 years, this tiny island outpost has enjoyed a cultural renaissance of truly monumental proportions, and it shows little sign of losing momentum in spite of the world’s economic recession.
The Masterworks Foundation, The Bermuda National Gallery and other leading art venues have plunged their roots firmly into this community’s soil. Corporations such as ACE Ltd. and Colonial Insurance host shows and exhibitions regularly. Renowned artists continue their close association with the island. Of special note are art galleries and workshops that are making a difference through their cultural contributions to the greater well-being and psyche of local life.
With its balmy weather, radiant sunlight and abundant scenery, Bermuda long has been a haven for painters and other artists from overseas. In the 18th century, Bermuda was blessed with visits by celebrated portrait painters Joseph Blackburn and John Green. The tradition of great artist visitors continued with the likes of Winslow Homer, who arrived at the dawn of the 20th century, and in the 1930s Georgia O’Keeffe turned to these islands to rejuvenate her body, mind and spirit, and ultimately to produce magnificent works featured today in public museum holdings.
More than 400 years after British colonisation, Bermudians have much to celebrate: splendid beaches, charming communities, vibrant business and a burgeoning arts scene.
What’s on the agenda for art lovers here? Begin your exploration with a visit to some of the world-class museums and arts centres.
Local Visual Art Institutions
Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard. A non-profit charity founded in 1984, the Bermuda Arts Centre offers visitors an opportunity to watch artists working on paintings, sculptures, jewellery and pottery.
Four studios accommodate resident artists: Chesley Trott, Jonah Jones, Alexandra Mosher, Amanda Temple, Christopher Marson and Summer Wood. In the main gallery, artists exhibit work for sale in juried exhibitions. The Astwood room, a smaller gallery, also features exhibitions and works for sale. In addition, visitors may purchase posters, prints, cards and calendars in the centre’s gift shop. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres are served at rotating show openings, and shows typically run for five or six weeks. Nine shows are scheduled for this year. (234-2809, www.artbermuda.bm)
Bermuda Historical Society. The ambience of a less-complicated time draws visitors to a haven in the heart of bustling Hamilton, Bermuda’s capital. Dating from 1814, gracious Par-la-Ville was the home of William B. Perot, Bermuda’s first postmaster. Today it houses a wealth of exhibitions maintained by the Bermuda Historical Society.
The Society showcases a superb collection of Bermuda-made silver, furniture and paintings, as well as fine china and other treasures brought by merchant mariners. Also on hand are Admiral Sir George Somers’ sea chest and lodestone, a copy of his hand-drawn map of Bermuda, and wonderful portraits painted by Somers of his somewhat lovely wife.
Don’t miss the collection of Bermudian currency — including the original “hogge money” — cedar furniture dating from the 1600s and china made for the coronation of Edward VIII, which was cancelled after he abdicated the British throne to marry divorced commoner Wallis Simpson.
An exhibition making note of the South African Boer War features cedar items carved by some of the more than 4,000 prisoners brought to Bermuda in 1901, as well as the medals of Fred Dolan, the only black Bermudian to have served in the conflict. Also on exhibit are the cedar carvings of some of the 58 German prisoners of war held in Bermuda during World War I and a display of souvenirs made for Bermudian Anna Maria Outerbridge, who formed a relief committee to oversee prisoners’ needs.
Even items from the Napoleonic wars are on display, along with Bermuda police memorabilia; a crystal owned by Vincent Astor, son of wealthy Titanic victim John Jacob Astor IV; and souvenirs made by descendants of Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian.
Do not overlook the house itself, advises Andrew Bermingham, BHS president. Par-la-Ville, he says, is a prized Bermuda landmark replete with old gardens and a rubber tree planted as a sapling in 1847. (295-2487, apbermingham@logic.bm)
National Museum of Bermuda. Do not miss the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum, located in Bermuda’s largest fort, The Keep. Enter by crossing a bridge over a moat that makes visitors feel transported into the past, especially as they admire the vaulted ceilings of the large Ordnance House, 30-foot-tall ramparts and a collection of massive cannons. Artefacts reflecting Bermuda’s rich seafaring history are on display in six historic military buildings. See the restored 1856 Dockyard clock, with its 9-foot-long pendulum, three bells and elegant brass work.
Before leaving the Museum, visit the elegant Commissioner’s House. Built in 1827, it has three floors of exhibitions, including local artist Graham Foster’s Hall of History mural, which spans over 1,000 square feet and illustrates 500 years of Bermuda history. The ocean views from the top floor are spectacular, so bring a camera! (234 1418, www.bmm.bm)
Bermuda National Gallery. Located in the City Hall & Arts Centre in Hamilton, the Bermuda National Gallery is committed to bringing the world of art to Bermuda and Bermuda’s art to the world. Visitors can always expect to find the history of art in Bermuda told through a chronologically arranged exhibition of fine and decorative arts in the Ondaatje Wing. This important Bermuda collection, including fine furniture, portraits and maps, conveys the island’s social and economic history, while contextualising the island’s contemporary artists.
The year 2010 will see on display the Ninth Biennial of Contemporary Art, an internationally juried exhibition, as well as an exhibition on perhaps Bermuda’s most important private collection of late American Impressionist works of Bermuda landscapes, and a tribute to an internationally acclaimed local stained-glass artist of immense talent, Vivienne Gardner.
The Par-la-Ville Sculpture Park in Hamilton, an extension of the BNG, is a treasure worth exploring. (295-9428, www.bng.bm )
Bermuda National Trust. Art lovers will appreciate the exhibits and furnishings in three historic properties maintained by the Bermuda National Trust: the Globe Hotel and Tucker House in St. George’s; and the Georgian-style Verdmont in Smith’s Parish.
Built of stone by Gov. Samuel Day in 1699, the Globe is notable for its double-span cedar and Flemish gables. The Historical Monuments Trust purchased the Globe in 1951 to house the Confederate Museum. In 1996, the Bermuda National Trust restored the building and installed a new 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.
Family furniture and other heirlooms fill Tucker House, the first property acquired by the trust in 1939. The building is a typical merchant’s house, with cellars and upstairs living quarters. It has a steeply pitched hip roof on the south side, with a double-flue chimney at the west end and lateral steps leading to a simple porch. Two enclosed courtyard gardens nurture herbs and other plants found in Bermuda in the 18th century. Along with furniture and silver, Tucker House displays paintings, including portraits by Joseph Blackburn. Some of the china bears the Tucker family crest, and there are two handsome chandeliers.
The newest addition to the collection is a fine portrait of Bermuda Governor George James Bruere. In the basement is an interesting display of items unearthed during BNT-supported archaeological digs.
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.
The old kitchen, thought to have been slave quarters, is part of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail. (236-6483,www.bnt.bm)
Bermuda Society Of Arts. Bright, airy and large, the Bermuda Society of Arts offers perhaps the best exhibition space for contemporary arts in Bermuda. More than 1,000 artists, from novices to professionals, display works in various mediums: photography, three-dimensional pieces, pastels, oils, acrylics, watercolours, pencil and charcoal drawings, and weaving. Shows rotate approximately every three weeks in four galleries: the Onions Gallery, the Edinburgh Gallery, and Studios A and B. Look for notices about the shows in local newspapers, or ask your hotel concierge.
Beyond the visual arts, the society introduces other arts activities that you might not expect from a gallery. For instance, the Blues Brothers and other musical events combine visual arts with music.
The society matches artists to potential buyers who have expressed interest in certain styles or techniques. It is, in that sense, the people’s art gallery. (292-3824, www.bsoa.bm)
Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation. Since it opened in 2007, Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation, a community arts centre, has supported and encouraged artists. It features three classrooms, classes for adults and children aged 2 and older, a print studio, four artist studios, and the Elliot Gallery, which presents shows from artists of all backgrounds and levels of artistic ability. The core of the foundation is community education, says Fiona Rodriguez-Roberts, the centre’s director. Children, for example, may attend classes to nurture or discover a talent, or to develop artistic coping skills for dealing with social or behavioural difficulties. (542-9000, www.kaf.bm)
Masterworks. The Masterworks Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art are amongst the finest of the flowers thriving at the botanical gardens in Paget. It holds an impressive collection of works, mostly paintings, by artists who found inspiration in Bermuda. Besides Homer and O’Keeffe, visitors have included Marsden Hartley, Albert Gleizes and Charles Demuth, whose works are amongst the more than 1,200 in the museum’s growing collection.
According to Elise Outerbridge, the museum’s assistant director, artists often praise the quality of Bermuda’s sunlight as it plays with the island’s distinctive architecture. “There is a kind of natural palette of colour in Bermuda not so readily available elsewhere.”
The museum houses three galleries: the Butterfield Family Gallery, the Bank of Bermuda Mezzanine and the Rick Faries Gallery, which mainly showcases local artists. Visitors may purchase artworks at as many as 20 shows per year. In addition, the Masterworks Artist in Residence Programme spotlights works of visiting artists at exhibitions and selling shows. (236-2950, www.bermudamasterworks.com)
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.
The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard
Maritime Lane, Royal Naval Dockyard
Tel: 234-2809
E-mail: artcentre@ibl.bm
Website: www.artbermuda.bm
Voted Best of Bermuda’s Best Art Gallery 2006, the 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 opens daily 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Bermuda Clayworks is a full-time production pottery open year-round, and is one of the primary cultural attractions in Dockyard, with on-site working studios. It has evolved into a collective gallery for ceramics, incorporating the work of several artists offering a broad range of styles. Bermuda Clayworks Designs offers functional tableware in vivid contemporary and traditional designs, as well as the popular customised house plaques seen island-wide. Jon Faulkner creates unique, salt-glazed, studio ware fired utilising recycled vegetable oil. The range of ceramics also includes jewellery, sculptural vases and wall hangings.
The Department of Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce established the craft market in 1987. It is the largest, most extensive craft outlet on the islands, featuring the works of 60 Bermudians. Every day, you’ll find artists here who are happy to explain their crafts as you watch them work, and many will produce customised crafts as unique gifts. Candles, Bermuda cedar work, ceramics, jewellery, fabric art, painted glassware, three-dimensional decoupage, needlework canvas, Christmas ornaments and quilts are just some of the items available. The co-operative is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.–6 p.m., and 11 a.m.–5 p.m. on Sundays and public holidays. Hours are extended when cruise ships are in port.
Bermuda National Gallery
2nd Floor, City Hall and Arts Centre,
Church Street, Hamilton
Tel: 295-9428
E-mail: director@bng.bm
Website: www.bng.bm
Located at City Hall and Arts Centre in the heart of Hamilton, the Bermuda National Gallery is at the centre of the islands’ vibrant arts scene. Since 1992, BNG has been dedicated to bringing the world of art to Bermuda and Bermuda’s art to the world. Each year, BNG shows several temporary exhibitions, with the Ondaatje Wing committed to telling Bermuda’s rich, multicultural history through its fine and decorative arts. Admission is free. Join in!
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. Created predominately in watercolour, her impressionistic landscapes, figurative paintings and whimsical animals reflect her mentor’s artistic legacy through simple lines and orientally inspired brushwork, but they also establish Jo’s own artistic niche 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.–1 p.m. weekdays. Appointments are recommended.
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.
Experience Bermuda’s true hot spot. Glass is like light on the move. Molten at 2,300 degrees, it captures the colours of gemstones, elements and minerals and focuses them forever in glass art originals. Watch Dockyard Glassworks’ artists as they manifest their unique visions. Visitors may sit in the spacious studio’s armchair theatre and watch flame-work artists, lamp workers and bead makers at work. Buy pieces right off the iron. Most popular are collectibles reflecting Bermudian life, including the whistling tree frog, honeymoon hogs, multicoloured angelfish and local birds. The glassworks opens daily 8 a.m.–6 p.m., and until 9 p.m. when ships are docked.
The Masterworks Museum of Bermuda
Art Botanical Gardens,
183 South Road, Paget
Tel: 236-2950
E-mail: mworks@logic.bm
Website: www.bermudamasterworks.com
Set in the Botanical Gardens in Paget, Bermuda’s first-ever purpose-built museum houses a collection of over 1,200 pieces of Bermuda-inspired art. Works by renowned artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Winslow Homer and Albert Gleizes are found in the permanent collection, and a continuously evolving show of local artists is on display in the Rick Faries gallery. Local art and a selection of museum merchandise are for sale. A gift shop and café are planned for 2010. Masterworks opens Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., and closes on public holidays. General admission is $5, free for members and children under 12, and the museum is wheelchair-accessible with a ramp and an elevator.
Nicholas Lusher Antiques & Fine Art
Tel: 236-2773 (appointments) / 747-8747 (cell)
E-mail: nicholas@nicholaslusher.com
Website: www.nicholaslusher.com
Nicholas Lusher Antiques & Fine Art buys and sells by appointment at Nicholas’ residence by telephoning first. The firm has had two brick-and-mortar galleries on the islands, and Nicholas has been in the business for 30 years. In the early 1980s, he trained at what is now Sotheby’s Institute. He pursued a degree in modern history at King’s College at the University of London, has taken courses at New York University and is presently enrolled at Pratt Institute. He has served as trustee and member of the Director’s Circle at the Bermuda National Gallery. Nicholas has also been a trustee of the Bermuda Society of Arts, established for the contemporary arts. On the occasion of the marriage of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, to Britain’s Prince Andrew, he was approached by the government of Bermuda to find an appropriate gift on behalf of the people here, and the piece he suggested was accepted. Nicholas has bought and sold Bermuda-related antiques and fine art for his entire career, and has a wealth of expertise in this area. Driven by his passion, Nicholas aims to trade items of beauty, history and cultural significance.
Make your Bermuda trip even more memorable with dolphins! Dolphin Quest offers fun, interactive dolphin encounter programs for all. Book your adventure today!
Have a fun-filled vacation with a cycle from Oleander. If you can ride a bicycle, you can easily ride an Oleander scooter. See all of Bermuda...reserve one today!
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.
ExperienceBermuda.com The official web site of the
Bermuda Hotel Association. Copyright 2003/10, HCP/Aboard Publishing, a division of Aboard Publishing, Inc., and subsidiary of The McClatchy Company.
Bermuda’s land area may be small, but its participation in the arts is immense. Over the past 20 years, this tiny island outpost has enjoyed a cultural renaissance of truly monumental proportions, and it shows little sign of losing momentum in spite of the world’s economic recession. 
With its balmy weather, radiant sunlight and abundant scenery, Bermuda long has been a haven for painters and other artists from overseas. In the 18th century, Bermuda was blessed with visits by celebrated portrait painters Joseph Blackburn and John Green. The tradition of great artist visitors continued with the likes of Winslow Homer, who arrived at the dawn of the 20th century, and in the 1930s Georgia O’Keeffe turned to these islands to rejuvenate her body, mind and spirit, and ultimately to produce magnificent works featured today in public museum holdings. 
Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard. A non-profit charity founded in 1984, the Bermuda Arts Centre offers visitors an opportunity to watch artists working on paintings, sculptures, jewellery and pottery. 
The Society showcases a superb collection of Bermuda-made silver, furniture and paintings, as well as fine china and other treasures brought by merchant mariners. Also on hand are Admiral Sir George Somers’ sea chest and lodestone, a copy of his hand-drawn map of Bermuda, and wonderful portraits painted by Somers of his somewhat lovely wife. 
An exhibition making note of the South African Boer War features cedar items carved by some of the more than 4,000 prisoners brought to Bermuda in 1901, as well as the medals of Fred Dolan, the only black Bermudian to have served in the conflict. Also on exhibit are the cedar carvings of some of the 58 German prisoners of war held in Bermuda during World War I and a display of souvenirs made for Bermudian Anna Maria Outerbridge, who formed a relief committee to oversee prisoners’ needs. 
Bermuda National Gallery. Located in the City Hall & Arts Centre in Hamilton, the Bermuda National Gallery is committed to bringing the world of art to Bermuda and Bermuda’s art to the world. Visitors can always expect to find the history of art in Bermuda told through a chronologically arranged exhibition of fine and decorative arts in the Ondaatje Wing. This important Bermuda collection, including fine furniture, portraits and maps, conveys the island’s social and economic history, while contextualising the island’s contemporary artists. 
Bermuda National Trust. Art lovers will appreciate the exhibits and furnishings in three historic properties maintained by the Bermuda National Trust: the Globe Hotel and Tucker House in St. George’s; and the Georgian-style Verdmont in Smith’s Parish. 
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. 
Beyond the visual arts, the society introduces other arts activities that you might not expect from a gallery. For instance, the Blues Brothers and other musical events combine visual arts with music. 
Masterworks. The Masterworks Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art are amongst the finest of the flowers thriving at the botanical gardens in Paget. It holds an impressive collection of works, mostly paintings, by artists who found inspiration in Bermuda. Besides Homer and O’Keeffe, visitors have included Marsden Hartley, Albert Gleizes and Charles Demuth, whose works are amongst the more than 1,200 in the museum’s growing collection. 
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. 
DID YOU KNOW? Bermuda's earliest artists were itinerant British painters and military topographers.
The Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard 
Bermuda Craft Market 
The Birdsey Studio 
Dockyard Glassworks 
Nicholas Lusher Antiques & Fine Art 
Make your Bermuda trip even more memorable with dolphins! Dolphin Quest offers fun, interactive dolphin encounter programs for all. Book your adventure today!
Have a fun-filled vacation with a cycle from Oleander. If you can ride a bicycle, you can easily ride an Oleander scooter. See all of Bermuda...reserve one today! 
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.
