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local Friday 4 November 2022
A nod to Aruba’s icons during Aruba Art Fair

ORANJESTAD – Starting to- Armando Goedgedrag,
day and during this week- Nigel Matthew, Ludwig de
end, Aruba Art Fair invites L’isle, Ronald Lemminga
you to soak up the culture and Stan Kuiperi.
of the vibrant city of San
Nicolas. This year, interna- Each day this weekend will
tional artists joined the cre- be completely different.
ative celebration and paid On Friday the 4th of No-
homage to Aruba’s cultural vember, most of the per-
icons. formers, singers and poets
all come from the area of
Aruba Art Fair takes place San Nicolas or are related
from Friday the 4th of No- to San Nicolas, so the night
vember until Sunday the will be dedicated to cele-
6th of November. It will be brating the Sunrise City.
a weekend packed with Saturday will be dedicated
art, music and creativity to the youth, with partici-
in the colorful city of San pation of Arte di Palabra
Nicolas. 80 artists are par- (“word art”), as well as dif-
ticipating in restoring old ferent dance schools that
murals as well as painting have been celebrating
new ones, and we caught anniversaries this year, for
up with two of them who example, Club di Move-
were paying homage to mento which is celebrat-
two cultural icons of Aruba, ing 25 years. The day will
Hilario Dongen and Sarah be dedicated to notable
Quita Offringa. events throughout the year
that did not receive much
Sarah Quita Offringa, 31, is tic attractions! A weekend exposure, but are coming
a worldwide windsurf sen- pass costs $20. to San Nicolas to be cele-
sation and 20-time World brated with everyone!
Champion (13 Freestyle, 5 Post Aruba exhibit
Slalom & 2 Wave). Sarah This year, Post Aruba is col- Finally on Sunday there will
Quita has a special con- laborating with Aruba Art be a Multicultural Parade,
nection to San Nicolas. Fair by holding an exhibi- celebrating that Aruba is
Portuguese artist MR Dheo, tion of 50 pieces from their a multicultural island. “Be it
who has participated private collections. These you were born here or not,
many times in Aruba Art are art works that were cre- your ancestors one way or
Fair, this year is working ated by local artists to be another came from anoth-
on a mural to honor Sarah made into post stamps for er place, and this makes
Quita Offringa. He told us the Post Office, but had Aruba so special”, orga-
he was inspired by the na- never been exhibited be- nizer Tito Bolivar said. There
ture of Aruba and wanted fore. The pieces were cho- are 108 nationalities living
to include different colorful are locally associated with sen to represent specific in harmony in Aruba, “and
flowers for his mural, and he Hilario as he would con- Stop by this weekend to themes, and include works I think that is one of the
knew he wanted a woman stantly make sure that they admire the finished murals, by local artists Gustave secrets of the One Happy
at the center of it. He met were working properly. as well as all the other artis- Nouel, Angiolina Henriquez, Island.”q
Sarah Quita, and decided
to dedicate the mural to
her to celebrate her incred-
ible achievements.

Hilario Doncken is a famous
journalist in Aruba. This year,
the government presented
him with an award for his
many years of service in the
local press. He is known for
being a long-time activist
for San Nicolas and the lo-
cal community. Canadian
artist Jenna Schwartz found
out about Hilario and de-
cided to dedicate her mu-
ral to him. This is her first time
taking part in the Aruba Art
Fair and she told us she
loves being on the island
and learning more about
the culture. In her mural she
included the famous light
posts at San Nicolas, which