Dr. Katherine Smith, historian and BVI Director of Culture, was instrumental in helping orchestrate a beautiful art exhibit for the opening night of the BVI Spring Regatta reflecting the maritime traditions of the BVI. Sophie Stanton, a local art promoter, helped organize a stunning parade of painted sails each showing the evolution of local maritime history in addition to paintings by a local artist Vincent “Bing” Malone.
“We were excited to hear from the BVI Spring Regatta and regatta director Cayley Smit,” Smith said. “She wanted to showcase the culture and heritage of the BVI to share it with the sailing community and the visiting sailors, and to encourage Virgin Islanders to embrace the Regatta. The Virgin Island heritage is maritime heritage with many stories.
A commission was delivered to local artists and the theme was to show a simple image of the evolution of the maritime history back to the traditional BVI sloops, to the docks at Nanny Cay and onwards to the many ways that the BVI enjoy maritime culture.
“We wanted the artwork to display that evolution and how it exists today,” Smith explained. “The yachting community – many people here work in the yachting industry. As Virgin Islanders we are definitely still sailors and captains and I feel that it is a shared culture. There is a lot of fishing and we have the Anegada Lobster Festival; our culture still has a great deal of maritime aspects.”
An exhibition from the Maritime Museum told its own story about the sloops, going back in time from building the sloop to launching, which was a community affair, then loading it at the dock – trade was busy – the BVI used to supply St Thomas with food. Artwork from Bing Malone shows the journey Smith described from the plantation era all the way through to power boats, the recreation power boat culture, and sailing in general.
“A lot of people come to the BVI just to sail,” Smith smiled. “It’s beautiful and perfect for sailing, we often refer to the BVI as the sailing capital of the world.”
