Bahamian vision

“In the Caribbean, there’s a need to specify a nation’s identity and move away from that vagueness of the Hollywood Caribbean experience,” says the artist John Cox, who is leading my tour through Baha Mar’s impressive collection of art. “What we’re trying to do is let art and culture inform the experience people have in the Bahamas and even use it to define who we are as Bahamians.”

This artist-curator is the executive director of arts and culture at the Rosewood Baha Mar and, earlier this year, he was named the brand’s inaugural Rosewood PlaceMaker. An extension of Rosewood’s A Sense of Place philosophy, the PlaceMaker programme works with key community figures to showcase local culture through curated experiences.

Here in the Nassau resort, this programme includes the Hussey Art Tour, introducing the work of local artists through a tour and printmaking workshop, and the Current Art Gallery Sip and Paint Experience led by resident artists. Inspired By Talks bring creatives together in the hotel’s Library lounge and the Black Gloves Suite Series sees a ninth-floor ocean-view suite of the hotel become a platform for Bahamian artists, while also illustrating the Current Art Gallery’s curatorial services.

Picture perfect

I join John on a tour through this oceanfront enclave to discover the stories behind some of the Bahamian artworks on display and to hear from the artist himself about the overall mission of this creative resort-wide endeavour. As he leads us through each art-filled space of Baha Mar, starting in Café Boulud at the Rosewood hotel, stories are shared through these eclectic artworks and insight is given into what the nation’s artists want to express through these paintings, prints and sculptures.

“Baha Mar has been very supportive of this idea of moving art and culture to the table,” enthuses Cox. “That’s a great thing because there are all these strong Bahamian artists working in their practices here and then, with the diaspora, are all over the world. What we’re trying to do is curate the entire resort with Bahamian art.”

Each tour introduces you to some of the hundreds of Bahamian artworks across both the Rosewood hotel and the wider Baha Mar resort. As well as being home to two other hotels (Grand Hyatt and SLS), the resort encompasses a wealth of restaurants, boutiques, bars and entertainment venues, a water park, Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, ESPA spa, casino and, among all of that, the prominent Current Gallery & Art Centre. This gallery was joined in October 2022 by the brand-new Eccho art museum.

The Current Gallery & Art Centre promotes Bahamian artists through regularly changing exhibitions, sells the work of local artisans in the gallery boutique, and hosts print-making sessions in the on-site studio. The gallery’s Black Glove Service provides curatorial services for home, office and commercial space, from the original production and framing to transportation and installation. Artists’ work is also available for purchase through The Current Gallery’s online store.

A first for the Bahamas, this gallery also has an art residency programme, allowing local and international artists to create work in the gallery’s studio space that culminates in exhibitions, lectures and workshops for guests of Baha Mar.

In the resort’s convention centre, artworks making up the Fairwind Exhibition take you through over 150 years of Bahamian art and culture. The new gallery, Eccho, adds to this already impressive collection of artworks with a new art collection exhibited in partnership with the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas. This significant space of vibrant work also encompasses an art studio and lounge.

Caribbean style

Set on Nassau’s white-sand Cable Beach, the Rosewood enclave of Baha Mar brings together a collection of 226 guest rooms, suites and villas set around tropical gardens and private cabana-lined pools. In architecture and interiors designed to feel like an island estate, facilities span four dining venues — Café Boulud of internationally acclaimed chef Daniel, which opened in 2021; the Latin American restaurant Costa serving coastal cuisine; the sophisticated Manor Park offering classic handcrafted cocktails; and The Library for afternoon tea — along with a Sense Spa and series of indoor and open-air event spaces.

As well as activities focusing on arts and culture, experiences here range from exploration of the local area to culinary encounters epitomised by the first ever Bahamas Culinary & Arts Festival presented by Baha Mar, which took place in October 2022 and is on the cards for the autumn 2023.

The hotel’s Bahamian art collection, curated by John, encompasses around 100 diverse pieces of work by 25 artists, including the Bahamas’ first abstract expressionist Kendra Hannaand, the Nassau-born artist Kendra Frorup – who expresses the inspiration she takes from the Bahamas in sculpture and print-making – as well as the rising Bahamian portrait and documentary photographer Melissa Alcena.

“The Bahamian architect, artist and cultural activist, Jackson Burnside, once said that by the time we get to 2020 more people will be coming to the Bahamas for its art and culture rather than just the sun, sand and sea,” says John. “That may not have been the case by the year he predicted but that’s really what we’re trying to accomplish now.”

Overall, these efforts build on the international prominence of the contemporary art scene that’s flourishing in the galleries and studios of Nassau – a city that holds UNESCO status as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts and one that’s home to cultural sites including the colourful Straw Market.

Alongside prestigious arts sites such as National Gallery of the Bahamas, Tern Gallery and The D’Aguilar Art Foundation, Baha Mar helps heat up the local contemporary art scene. Together, these sites foster a creative community that’s eager to represent Bahamian culture on a local and international stage, while also deepening people’s understanding of this nation’s heritage and culture through artistic expression.

rosewoodhotels.com