Opposite the entrance to the Bermuda Maritime Museum [1], the 20-year-old Bermuda Craft Market (4 Maritime Ln., tel. 441/234-3208, fax 441/234-0823, summer 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m., winter 10 a.m.–5 p.m.) is a co-op that sells the work of more than 60 artists, a collection that includes cedar crafts, candles, Christmas ornaments, needlework, quilts, ceramics, and batiks. There’s also a section full of rare Bermuda books (“Bermudaphile treasures”) and contemporary editions.
Next to the Craft Market, with a cherry-red English phone box outside, is Bermuda Arts Centre (tel. 441/234-2809, www.artbermuda.bm [2], 10 a.m.–5 p.m. daily, admission free, wheelchair-accessible), one of the key venues for showcasing island artists. Regular seasonal shows (art is for sale), as well as a retail store and six resident artists’ studios give visitors a true sense of the vibrant local arts scene. Landscape artist Jonah Jones keeps a studio here, as well as renowned cedar craftsman Chesley Trott.
Drop into his sweet-smelling workshop, where rough boughs lay ready for transformation into polished works of art. Trott, who teaches in the prison system, has an impressive collection of cedar pull-toys, including crickets and frogs. A recent work is somewhat larger—an eight-foot totem pole, intricately carved with Bermudian icons, now on display in the Arrivals Hall of L. F. Wade International Airport.
Links:
[1] http://www.moon.com/destinations/bermuda/sandys-parish/royal-naval-dockyard/sights/bermuda-maritime-museum
[2] http://www.artbermuda.bm