Thirty years ago Masterworks was just an idea.

It had no collection, let alone a purpose-built art museum to house it.

Last week, Masterworks unveiled its 30th anniversary exhibition; a blockbuster show featuring its permanent collection.

Unusually, the show starts on the museum’s mezzanine level where selected works by local artists in the collection are displayed.

The main gallery has been transformed with the installation of a partitioned wall — necessary to hang such a large show. It effectively splits the exhibit into four sections for each major element.

The Bermuda 4 Sail section celebrates the island’s sailing prowess and Canada Eh? marks the strong ties between the North American country and Bermuda. The exhibit also marks the 100th anniversary of visits to the island by Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth and Albert Gleizes with several Bermuda works. The French cubist artist Gleizes, perhaps lesser known than Picasso and Braque despite co-writing the first major treatise on cubism in 1912, painted Bermuda on paper and canvas in sombre hues and fractured planes.

The show is effective in imparting information about the works of note. The balance is right in the accompanying wall text’s design, content and relative size. It lets the art speak and text inform without competing for attention. Georgia O’Keeffe visited the island twice, in 1933 and 1934, staying in Somerset to recuperate from a mental breakdown. She was introduced to the island by her photographer and art dealer husband Alfred Stieglitz, champion of the American modernists. Her stay reconnected her with the drawing that she often returned to for inspiration throughout her long life and career. Along with O’Keeffe’s graphite study Banyan Tree, there are several Henry Moore sketches of shells brought to him from Bermuda. The art is accompanied by a soundscape generated by several videos playing throughout the show of bygone Bermuda.

The final section of the show is devoted to the 12 Apostles — the first 12 paintings Masterworks acquired. They are the backbone to the museum that today supports a vast collection of not only art and sculpture, but also ephemera related to Bermuda.

The museum’s big hitting paintings are all displayed. Among them are three naturalistic Winslow Homer watercolours, Andrew Wyeth’s Royal Palms and, on an opposing wall, Ogden Pleissner’s watercolour of the same St George’s lane but looking south. This part of the gallery also has a central display containing fascinating examples of the evolution in camera design and technology. Space is an issue for the museum and its inclusion at this point in the exhibit I think interferes with the sightlines of such integral pictures.

Masterworks has built a culturally significant collection that includes artists who were leaders in their fields and significant figures in art history who have painted in Bermuda or have been inspired by it. The fresh and ever inventive interpretation of their collection makes 2017 a stellar year to visit the museum. It is a reminder in their milestone year of exactly what vision and tenacity can make of an idea.

•Reviewed at an early preview in December 2016

Room with a View runs until September 30.