After Rhoda Tillett, founder of the Arts Alive concerts and shows, died 10 years ago, some wondered if the traditions she established would carry on.
Well, Saturday marked the 33rd year of "Art in the Garden," one of Tillett’s most enduring daytime traditions at the former Danish West Indian farm where she toiled for years to create a mecca for artists.
Tillett events are an integral part of the community. The peaceful garden – ringed with palm trees, a huge sheltering genip tree, a center fountain, resident iguanas, a restaurant, Pistarckle Theater and the craft shops – is a showplace for the arts with Classics in the Garden concerts and annual music competition events.
It’s a natural for music, food and camaraderie, all of which abounded Saturday. Lynn Berry, executive director of Arts Alive for the past six years or so, was at the center of things, arranging raffles and music along with Doug Lewis and Polly Watts, members of the island’s music community.
Folks munched on everything from homemade cupcakes to shrimp rotis and whole-wheat baked veggie pates, while Janice Reiter on guitar and the amazing 16-year-old violinist Alana Davis, who plays professionally with Isis Collier as the Sweet Strings, provided a varied musical background.
Those who know Reiter know she is the widow of beloved island Calypsonian Nicky Russell, known as Mighty Whitey, who died three years ago. Saturday he was alive as ever in the spirit of Reiter’s tribute, "Who is she? The Mighty Wifey." Reiter said the song is really adapted from one of Nicky’s, but it rings with Reiter’s passion.
Music filled the day with local favorites – Polly and Fred Watts of Family and Friends kept up the songfest along with Women of Note, led by Polly Watts, along with Danny Silber on the keyboard, along with musicians from the Suzuki Violin School at the Virgin Islands Montessori School and International Academy.
While keeping a beat to the music, folks explored the arts and crafts ranging from cupcakes to woodwork, photography, decorative plants, and the many Tillett Garden shops featuring pottery, jewelry and the venerable candlemaker Jason Budsan with his Caribbean Herbals and Candles.
Ray Lopez brightened up a corner of the garden with an arresting display of sparkling glass designs – reflecting the light in the garden.
"It’s a copper-foil technique in the Tiffany style," Lopez said.
He and his wife, Cheri, make their creations at their Water Island studio.
Sisters Tara MacDonald Smith and Zoe Good displayed a very personal concept in jewelry Good dreamed up, Paradise Pendants. Good is a photographer who has lived here about five years and done some charter sailing.
"I took so many photographs of sea life, and I wanted to do something with them," she said.
How about making pendants with small pictures? Voila! The concept has grown into earrings, necklaces, and other jewelry items, each with a special view of coral or other sea life.
"It’ s really been fun," both sisters agree.
Off to the side of the garden, two native French women were vending their wares – cupcakes for one and calabash creations for the other. Actually, neither realized the other was a from a native French family.
"I’m a Magras," said cupcake maker Lisamarie Magras-Lucia. "I’m a Brin," said Shelli Danielle, who creates jewelry, candle holders and even kitchen items out of local flora and fauna. Pointing to a bamboo spoon, she said, "These are great for cooking in metal pots; they don’t scrape."
Magras-Lucia’s cupcakes aren’t only for people. She caters to the four-footed with Pup-Cakes such as peanut butter delight.
"They’re all natural ingredients for our furry kids," she said. "And all the proceeds go to the Humane Society."
June Archibald had pride of place in the center of the garden, where she displayed her local jams, jellies, condiments and hot sauces with a hungry crowd happily gobbling up samples from her Precious Produce farm where she grows everything she bottles.
Photographer Jessica Howard displayed some truly remarkable work, ranging from local sea shots to a close up of an elephant. Needless to say, she is a well-traveled photographer.
"Traveling was my first love, and the photography just followed," she said.
Arts Alive is administered by the Tillett Foundation, a not-for-profit 501 c (3) arts organization. Its mission is to present quality visual and performing arts in the Virgin Islands and to involve and encourage young people in the appreciation, study, performance, and exhibition of fine music and visual arts.
