A St. David’s Primary student shared his love of art with the Premier and his wife at the Cabinet office last week.

Nine-year old Darae Smith created a sculpture so good that Dr. Brown and his wife Wanda wanted to buy it. He gave it to them as a gift and in return will get to shadow a chef for a day.

His art teacher, Michael Bean, says the story began when he taught his class a unit on sculpture. “At the conclusion of the unit of study, the students are required to respond to the study with a project. The students were required to create a bas relief sculpture using paper. After the designs were created in paper, I laminated them for presentation purposes and mounted them on cardboard.”

He said Darae’s project was so successful that he sent it in to ‘Spring into the Arts’, an art show held in April for primary school students. Mr. Bean says Dr. Brown and his wife attended the exhibit and saw Darae’s art.

“When we saw Durae’s art we were drawn right to it,” Mrs. Brown said. “I was told by the Premier’s wife that both she and the Premier saw the picture at the same time and walked over to it. They were both impressed by the work and did some investigating to find out who the student was that did the picture. I then received a phone call from a contact person who relayed the story to me.”

Mr. Bean says he was surprised because he had no idea that the Premier would want to buy a piece of art from one of his students. “Darae decided to give the Premier his picture and that is how we ended up presenting the Premier his work at the Cabinet office. This was a very big moment for Darae. I believe it is unprecedented that a sitting Premier has ever received the art work of one of Bermuda’s public school students.”

“Darae returned to school full of excitement telling his classmates about the man that he had only ever studied in social studies and seen in pictures.”

Darae and Mr. Bean presented the work to Dr. and Mrs. Brown at the Cabinet Office on June 7. Dr. Brown asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up and he said a chef. The Premier surprised him by calling the Acting Tourism Director to set up a day for Darae to shadow a chef at work in a hotel.

Dr. Brown later said, “We must get our young people energised about the tourism industry, no matter what their age. Tourism in Bermuda is poised to surge and wherever possible we want qualified Bermudians at the head of the industry. If we foster our young talent now they will be ready to lead the industry tomorrow. I think Durae can be one of those leaders.”

Mr. Bean is also excited about the wonderful thing that has happened to his young student.

“Darae Smith’s story is the kind of stuff that dreams are made of. Some very unexpected things happened for a little boy who had no idea that his artwork would end up in the hands of the Premier of Bermuda.”