Celebrating a birthday tomorrow is the Bermuda National Gallery.

Three years since its doors first opened, the Gallery has already presented more than 30 special exhibitions, as well as hosting an ongoing programme of lectures, slide shows and performances of music and drama.

Far from resting on laurels, the National Gallery is currently supervising the installation of its biggest exhibition yet -- 137 works from 32 countries that make up the travelling Carib Show -- which will be mounted over three locations, in the National Gallery, the Bermuda Society of Arts and the Arts Centre at Dockyard.

The Gallery will also score yet another impressive first early next year.

Director Mrs. Laura Gorham and Government archivist Mr. John Adams have been invited to curate an exhibition of early Bermuda watercolours at the prestigious Pierpoint Morgan Library in New York.

"I think that after three years, we can finally say that we're succeeding in becoming what we set out to be,'' says Mrs. Gorham. "That is, a facility that reflect's Bermuda's diversity and to be a cultural centre, where we have the performing arts as well as the visual arts under one roof.'' Noting that the primary mission of the National Gallery was to provide a climate-controlled facility that would house and care for artwork according to international standards, Mrs. Gorham points out that, having achieved that objective, the next most important mission was to establish the Gallery as an educational institution.

"When we opened up, we realised it wasn't good enough just to put art on the walls! We had to bring the whole community together and one of the ways of doing that was to make sure that every school child on the Island should have the chance of coming to our shows at least once a year. I'm glad to say that, thanks to exhibitions like the African Show and the Pop-Op Show, most of them have been to many more than that, and some have been to every show!'' Gallery officials have been careful to ensure that each new opening provides a balanced mix of exhibitions.

"We have five galleries altogether,'' points out Mrs. Gorham. "And each one has a distinct feel -- so we try to have five shows at any given time that are very different in content and approach. We try to appeal to visitors and locals alike, so we always aim for a mix. It's important, for instance, to have examples of historic and contemporary Bermuda art, as well as international artwork. This means that we have to focus -- sometimes all at once! -- on many, many different areas in the course of just one year.'' This past year was not only productive, but also newsworthy, when the Queen visited the Gallery during her stay here in March. The featured artist for this high-profile event was Bermudian Bill Ming, whose sculptures in his adopted home of England had won him the prestigious Henry Moore award.

In May, Masterworks presented an exhibition in their section of the gallery to tie in with the 1994 Heritage Month theme, "Women of Bermuda,'' generally agreed to be one of the most rewarding shows yet staged by this group.

October saw the Gallery host Masterworks' exhibition of Georgia O'Keeffe's Bermuda drawings in the Ondaatje Wing, and the same month brought "Pop Goes the Easel,'' featuring "pop'' and "op'' art of the 1960s.

Other exhibitions have included a retrospective of Charles Lloyd Tucker and the Tucker Sisters, the summer Biennial, John Kaufmann, The Fine Art of Bermuda Maps, and the watercolours of John Gaspard LeMarchant.

Exhibitions of the work of Hereward Watlington and sculptor Desmond Fountain, the two artists who spearheaded the concept of a national gallery for Bermuda, were chosen for the 3rd anniversary period.

All of this -- and it has to be paid for, too. According to Mrs. Gorham, the National Gallery has to raise $400,000 per year, just to stay in business. The entire question of costs and funding is an area, she believes, where the image of the Gallery may still misunderstood by the general public.

"We are a charity! We're not the big guys with a big grant,'' she exclaims.

Income, she says, comes from membership dues, individual and corporate donations, facility rental, and a well-stocked museum shop. Noting that the Gallery received an initial capital grant from Government of about $300,000, she explains that this was partly used for the restoration of the Watlington Collection and the rest toward partial cost of the actual renovations.

"We do not receive a government operating grant. Our electricity bill alone costs us about $6,000 per month. Masterworks pays a token rent of $1 per year for the area we lease to them, so we are basically subsidising Masterworks to the equivalent of about $80,000 per year in proportion to what it costs to operate the National Gallery.'' Mrs. Gorham is the first to admit that their achievements would have been impossible without the number -- and calibre -- of volunteers who work on a regular basis to promote the aims of the gallery.

Future shows include "Prints, Etchings and Lithographs,'' the watercolours of 19th century artist, Edward James, and local artist Robert Bassett will be curating "Norman Lewis and the Harlem Renaissance.'' Also slated is an exhibition in co-operation with the Aquarium of studies by Else Bostelmann of "Underwater Life'' during Dr. William Beebe's 1930s bathysphere project, and finally, what should be an historically fascinating display of Princess Louise's watercolours during her celebrated extended stay here at the Princess Hotel in the 1890s.

By any standards, this is an impressive track-record. It is interesting to note that although the National Gallery has achieved so much in the first three years of its life, the road to that opening day on March 15, 1992, was a long and frustrating one.

As Mrs. Gorham points out, Desmond Fountain took the first concrete steps in establishing a national gallery when he returned to the Island as a young artist in 1971. Together with Michael Darling and Charles Zuill, he spent the next decade trying to get the necessary legislation through, with the Act of Parliament finally being passed in 1982. A Steering Committee, consisting of representatives from the Bermuda Society of Arts, the Arts Centre at Dockyard and a wide range of individuals, was formed in 1986 who worked tirelessly to realise the dream of a National Gallery.

The final, vital impetus was, of course, the bequest by Hereward Watlington of his European collection of paintings which he bequeathed to the people of Bermuda. When the Corporation of Hamilton offered space in City Hall in 1988, it was finally full-steam ahead and, to quote a well-worn phrase, "the rest is history.'' ANNIVERSARY SHOW -- Sculptures and paintings by Desmond Fountain will be featured in a retrospective of his work which opens at the National Gallery on March 24. For the third anniversary of the Gallery on March 15, Mr. Fountain's sculptures and paintings by the late Hereward Watlington will form a week-long joint exhibition by these two driving forces behind the creation of the Gallery. Pictured is Mr. Fountain's bronze of "Budding Artist.''