on what Art means to her Clara Reyes

“I’ve been lucky enough to have grown up in a household where art history and art making was a daily part of my life,” shares Clara Reyes, Head of the Culture Department and Co-Founder of National Institute of Arts, “I had a mother who created a space for me to be this consummate artist by providing the opportunities for me to be enrolled in as many creative, as well as, sporting activities.

My mother ensured that our family, all of her children, were enrolled in multiple interdisciplinary activities. So steel-pan lessons, typing lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons, softball, volleyball, hiking, secretarial courses, night schools. And she was able to pay for all my dance classes, my gymnastics classes, all of that.

She celebrated our talents. She celebrated our creativity. And as a young child in St. Maarten, via the St Maarten