I first came to Bermuda in 1951 when the Hamilton Hotel, where the City Hall parking lot is now, was the home of two local art societies. After the hotel burned down, exhibitions were held in the Masonic Hall on Reid Street.

I remember going to a meeting there when the two local societies were merged to become the Bermuda Society of Arts. I first exhibited a picture in the Masonic Hall when the curator was a kind lady called, if memory serves me correctly, Gwen Davis.

When the new City Hall was completed the BSoA moved into the lovely gallery which is still its home, on the western end of the upper floor.

I don't recall who followed Gwen as curator, but there was a Swiss artist called Chris Laely who held the post for some years.

I served on the artists' committee and once on the jury (which used to be elected and was hotly contested).

It could have been about 1980 when the job fell vacant, and I decided to apply for it. I stayed for 13 years, the latter of which were happily shared with Valerie Weddup. Among the BSoA presidents I recall were 'Gibby' (Sir Gilbert) Cooper, Bill Kemble, Florence Fish, Joy Waters, Dame Margorie Bean and Desmond Fountain.

At that time the BSoA was just one large gallery, and it was really too big for most artists to fill, so group shows were popular. I myself participated in group shows with three friends in 1973, 1976 and 1987.

There was no Bermuda National Gallery then, and the East exhibition room was used for meetings, concerts and, during the winter months housed a tourist attraction of stalls, tea (for bona fide visitors) and a fashion show hosted by a great gal called Elspeth Gibson.

In my early days, the Society charged admission, but thankfully this was abandoned, which increased the number of our visitors.

The annual Schools' Exhibition was probably the most visited show, as large groups came from all of the schools and proud parents dashed in to view their offsprings' offerings.

Busy fathers could be difficult, as they expected to be told just where the artwork was that they had rushed in to see! (The best we could do was to indicate the location of work from their particular school) It was very noisy and exhausting, and the curators heaved a sigh of relief when all was taken down.

During the summer months the Society held outdoor shows on the railings outside the public library on Queen Street.

This was a lot of work, but members volunteered their help and all enjoyed sitting in shifts and discussing the work with passersby. Sometimes we made sales. We were allowed to store pictures in the Perot Post Office, but it was quite hectic bringing them out at 9 a.m. and putting them away again before 5 p.m.

We coped with passing showers by pulling sheets of plastic right over the show on the railings, but on really wet days had to park ourselves on the Library verandah.

For several years we also hung pictures in the departure lounges at the airport – another job for committee members and the curator.

Security eventually put a stop to this (women marching in and out with pictures!). It couldn't happen today.

The City Hall is much admired, with its Bermudian roof, but in fact the size of the roof was not suitable for the traditional method of building. Happily unaware of potential problems, we hung a large show of work by the well-known and now late local artist Joy Bluck Waters.

All was set for a catered, gala opening night, but a routine inspection of the roof space revealed that only a whisker was holding everything together.

"No way could a large number of people bounce and chatter round the gallery, the whole roof might fall in," said the distraught City Engineer, so we held the reception in the downstairs lobby, and I believe the Corporation of Hamilton relented to the extent of allowing Joy to take just one or two favoured guests up at a time up to see her work.

The following Monday we were moved lock stock and barrel down to No. 1 Shed.

I can't recall how long we were there, but I know it was very draughty, and the metal doors on the waterside rattled horribly. It must have been winter as no cruise ships came in. Some means of fixing the roof with extra support was devised, and seems to have solved the problem. Eventually we came home again.

Life is much easier today. We had no elevator or air conditioning back then.

All pictures, and even worse, pieces of sculpture, had to be hauled up the stairs by the artists and the curator.

A hazard, even now when the wind whistles around City Hall, came once when a large oil was wrenched out of the artist's hands and deposited in the pond.

Unfortunately, early minutes of the BSoA were destroyed when a bad leak occurred in the cupboard where they were stored.

This was during Florence Fish's tenure as president, and she duly authorised the disposal of all the sodden papers. Some record of shows and AGMs could probably be found in The Royal Gazette archives if an energetic volunteer researcher could be found.