At the end of a Bermuda family gathering, it is typical for someone to wrap up takeaway in tin foil and hand it to guests to enjoy later.

This was the inspiration for Edwin Smith’s upcoming art show, The Takeaway, opening at the end of the month at the Bermuda College.

“I decided to go with a small installation rather than a more traditional approach,” Dr Smith said. “There is going to be a lot of tin foil involved.”

The foil is for the wrap-up of his 27-year career at the college. He retires from teaching at the end of the year.

“It is also ‘takeaway’ as in the last word or message,” Dr Smith said.

Throughout his career his take-home advice to his students has always been “believe in yourself”.

“I want them to know that their perspective is valid and valuable,” Dr Smith said. “I tell them keep developing yourself, but be humble. Know that your work is about more than technique.”

He laughingly shrugs off rumours that this will be his last art show at the college, saying: “It is actually my first. I have never had one on campus before.”

In The Takeaway, he wanted to be as non-traditional as possible.

“Sameness kills in the art world,” he said. “There will be a video component, and also acrylic and charcoal done on torn cardboard boxes rather than canvas.”

The art exhibition will also include sketches and paintings reflecting on his more memorable teaching moments at the college.

One of them was when one of his students made an enormous bowl for the Bermuda College student art show, then sat in it throughout the show, dressed in a bikini.

“She was very brave,” he said. “She got into the bowl and got into character. She fixed focus and would not talk to anyone during the show. That student came here with very low self-esteem. She had gotten her General Education Diploma, and then come here to the college. She was easily one of the strongest students I have had in my whole time here. She aced every exam. I watched her development. She is in school abroad now and doing well.”

Another piece looks at his time teaching art during the social-distancing measures of the pandemic.

“At that time almost every course was taught remotely,” Dr Smith said. “Our student art classes stayed here, but we went into the gymnasium. The whole gym was the classroom, with everyone kept eight feet apart. If you look at a photograph I took of it, it looks like something out of the 19th century. It was taken in January, so everyone was wearing black or dark colours. They are all standing at their easels like robots.”

A final piece in the show will be a silhouette cut-out of two figures. One is passing a chair to the other, meant to symbolise the passing of the teaching torch.

Dr Smith started working at the Bermuda College in graphic design in 1998 after eight years teaching art at the Bermuda Institute. When an opening appeared in teaching, he took that.

“It just so happened that Diana Amos was teaching with Charles Zuill in the art department,” he said. “She was about to retire, so they needed somebody to step into her place.”

He also continued to assist in the graphic design department.

Dr Zuill became his mentor.

“He is a fantastic person, and helped me transition to teaching college students,” Dr Smith said. “He would give me pointers and advice. We would even go to College Art Association conferences together, so that we could rub shoulders with other art teachers.”

Over the years Dr Smith has seen a lot of changes at the school. The bookstore used to be in a different location. There are extra storeys on buildings that were one floor when he arrived.

“When I came I was taller than the cedar trees in the courtyard,” he said. “Now they are much taller than I am.”

While teaching art, he often brings his own work into the classroom and creates alongside his students, sharing his process and struggles with them.

He tries to stay patient with the students who goof off a bit in his class.

“That was me in my teenage years,” he said. “I went to college right after high school only because my friends did.”

He went to what is now called Northern Caribbean University in Jamaica. At first, he passed his classes, but was not a top student. It was only when he reached his junior year that he started to take his education seriously.

“I suddenly thought, I graduate next year, I need to buckle down,” he said.

He went on to get a master of fine arts from the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and a doctorate in fine arts from Texas Tech University.

His last solo exhibition was in 2023, when he held a mixed-media show, Cow Pass2, with his sons, Stefan and Micrae, at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

• The Takeaway opens on the second floor of the North Hall in the art department on January 30 at 5.30pm and will run, during college operating hours, until February 28