1996 Year in Review. . . .1996 Year in Review . . . .1996 Year in Review: One sad note of 1996 was the closing of the Harbour Gallery Through no fault of the Society, the charming Harbour Gallery on Pitts Bay Road had to be closed -- this at a time when this potentially exciting venture was showing every sign of material and artistic success. On the up side, however, another important event was the announcement of a closer collaboration between the Society and the Masterworks Foundation. This initially took the form of a show hosted by the Society in their City Hall gallery and featuring artists from Masterworks' `Artists Up Front Street' series of solo shows which included such artists as Catherine Draycott, Will Collieson, Chesley Trott, James Toogood, William Gringley, Graham Foster, Sharon Wilson, Lady Waddington and Jennifer Smith, Elizabeth Mulderig and Mark Emmerson. In addition, the Society took another important step forward by having all four Members' Shows judged by international jurors. They also hosted a series of exhibitions in both the main and smaller Edinburgh Gallery, thus providing vital showcases for some intriguing new work.

The Arts Centre at Dockyard, with Julie Hasting-Smith continuing to impress as curator, came up with some intriguing shows, among them `Terra Firma', green-themed and honouring this earth, and `Charcoal and Clay', devoted to works by such artists as Roland Russell, Jonathan Northcott, Bruce Stuart, Christine Wellman and Jon Faulkner.

There were several notable solo or group shows, among them, Eldon Trimingham (at the ACE Building, a delightful new venue for hanging art) Paul Clinton (at Dockyard), Daniel Dempster and Brian Northcott (Society of Arts galleries), Don Trousdell, Susan Curtis and Sheilagh Head (at the Windjammer Gallery), Ann Proctor and Cherie Sikking (Heritage House), `Line-Up', "a refreshing retro romp through pop'' and `Seeds Two' at Admiralty House, which featured works by Kendra Ezekiel, Antoine Hunt, John Northcott, Paul Clinton and Will Collieson.

Masterworks, of course, was formed some nine years ago to bring Bermudian and Bermuda-themed art "home''. This year has been another busy and productive year, with Masterworks placing their Colouring Book in a total of 123 elementary schools to enhance young people's knowledge of art in Bermuda and of historical and environmental issues. 55 new works have been acquired, and the `Rent-a-Painting' scheme has flourished, with pictures from the collection being hung in many corporate offices, as well as in public and government buildings.

Their "wish'' for 1997 is to acquire funds to purchase Marsden Hartley's `Still Life With Pink Ground' (presently on loan) for their permanent collection. Hartley, after Homer and O'Keeffe, was probably the best known American artist known to have painted here. His work is of particular interest as it demonstrates the development of American 20th century painting through its influence of the German Expressionist movement and the French Cubist movement of Albert Gleizes, who also painted here and is represented in the collection.

The Bermuda National Gallery hosted an ambitious total of seven new exhibitions, of varying quality, during 1996. Portrait of an Era (pre-1900) combined the core Watlington collection with paintings borrowed from local sources. Later in the year, 18 of the late Hereward Watlington's European paintings, recently restored by Michael Cowell, and elucidating the restoration process, were also placed on show. Africa seems to have been the geographical `flavour of the year' with two major shows devoted to work from that continent. `The Power and the Glory' featured African masks and the second featured 22 African sculptures "adopted'' by local people to form a permanent collection. The Second Biennial, featuring work by local contemporary artists, needs to completely re-think its curatorial approach if future shows are to succeed in attracting more of Bermuda's leading artists.

`Quenching Thirst', a relatively modest exhibition of photographs from the private collection of Tom Butterfield (and sensitively curated by him), and including images by several photographic immortals, turned out to be one of the most artistically satisfying shows of the year. There was an interesting link-up of art and science in `Bostelmann Paints for Beebe' featuring Else Bostelmann's watercolours of the underwater creatures found by scientist Dr.

William Beebe in his famous descents in the then revolutionary Bathysphere.

Besides the Ondaatje Wing exhibit there was a complementary `hands on' installation at the Bermuda Aquarium.

By far the most important event for the National Gallery, however, was `Through British Eyes', an exhibition of watercolours and drawings of Bermuda from the early 1800s, curated with painstakingly acquired historical knowledge and care by government archivist John Adams for the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. This was a `first' for Bermuda, placing the gallery firmly on the international map both from a cultural and tourism standpoint, and stirring gratifying interest in that city's artistic, historical and archival circles.

Following three successful winter seasons of theatre at the Pembroke Princess Hotel, the Jabulani Repertory Company added a summer season this year. Part of the winter programme, of course, carried over into 1996 and included `Once On This Island', a charming Caribbean musical which proved difficult, however, to stage successfully in the Gazebo Bar's essentially nightclub setting; a truly brilliant performance by Denise Whitter in `Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill', in which she portrayed the life and music of Billie Holiday.

Unfortunately, this humorous yet hard-hitting drama (with `Shine' Hayward and Friends providing musical backing), and showing director Patricia Pogson at the top of her form, proved to be too strong for the general run of Americans in holiday mode. The two farces fared far better, which probably explained producer Dusty Hind's decision to stick safely to this brand of entertainment for the summer season. `Move Over, Mrs. Markham' certainly lived up to its reputation as "frantic British farce'', while Alan Ayckbourn's `Relatively Speaking' provided an equally sparkling text for the brilliant cast of Richard Fell, Helen Coffey, Julia Snelling and Phillip Jones. For the summer, yet another farce, Marc Camoletti's undeniably hilarious `Don't Dress For Dinner' and starring Arthur Lugo, Beverley Crick, Paul Matthews, Carol Birch, Happy Lindsay and Mark Pettingill, was successfully resurrected as the third offering.

Of the locally produced or Bermuda-connected books which appeared in 1996, Llewellyn Emery's `Nothin' but a Pond Dog' provided a wonderful evocation of childhood in the `Pond' area of Pembroke; resident author Christopher Ondaatje's `Sindh Revisited' threw fascinating and scholarly new light on the eccentric Victorian explorer Sir Richard Burton's virtually unchronicled years in India; photographer Ian MacDonald-Smith's `Bermuda's Gardens and Houses' and the second volume of Scott Stallard's `Bermuda From the Air' both won critical acclaim; and Christine Phillips-Watlington's meticulously researched and attractive book, `Bermuda's Botanical Wonderland: A Field Guide' finally provided a long overdue guide to the Island's plant life -- much of it now seriously endangered through over-development. Sadly, this year marked the death of Vernon Jackson, a naturally gifted, gentle and refreshingly modest man who wrote with a rare perception of his life and times. He will be greatly missed.

All in all, yet another incredibly productive year on the Bermuda arts scene.

It will be interesting to see if Dr. Swan is able to literally cash in on Bermuda's increasing artistic prestige on the international scene when February's Budget rolls around. Or will it be yet another case of this Island's artistic community standing helplessly by as its outstanding achievements in both the performing and visual arts are virtually ignored, in terms of financial encouragement, by an apparently indifferent Government? Here's hoping...

LIFETIME ACHIEVERS -- Gary Burgess (above left) and Jay Bluck (above right) were honoured in this year's Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Bermuda Arts Council.

MASQUERADE STUDY -- This painting by Catherine Draycott was on view in her successful one-woman show for Masterworks' `Artists Up Front Street'.

YEAR IN REVIEW REV