Art & Craft shopping in Caribbean Islands
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Ocho Rios Craft Park
For craft stalls, Ocho Rios Craft Park and Dunn’s River Craft Park both have dozens, as do Pineapple Place, to the east of town, and Coconut Grove Shopping Village, which is opposite Beaches Royal Plantation Golf Resort & Spa. Fern Gully, to the south of Ocho Rios, is lined with stalls where artists sell their paintings and carvings at prices marginally lower than you’ll find elsewhere.
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Wassi Art
Family-owned Wassi Art employs over fifty artists to make its colorful, richly decorated terra-cotta pottery. It is named for the ‘wassi’ wasp, or potter wasp, which makes a mud pot for each of her eggs and stuffs it with a caterpillar for food for her hatchlings. Free tours are offered, detailing the entire process including painting and firing. A store sells work (US$5 to US$5000). The owners will ship.
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craft shop
Local craftsmen still make goombay drums here. These - along with an array of medicinal herbs, calabashes and abeng horns - are for sale in the tiny red-and-green-painted craft shop as you enter town. The hand-carved goombay drum is box-shaped and covered with goatskin, and makes a wonderfully deep and resonant racket.
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Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales
Independencia, between Maceo and JB Zayas, is the pedestrian shopping street called the Boulevard by locals. It’s littered with all kind of shops and restaurants and is the bustling hub of city life, especially at weekends. Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales sells handicrafts and is the main tourist shop here.
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R Stewart
In Drapers you’ll find the roadside gallery of renowned self-taught artist R Stewart, who more than likely will be working on his latest canvas at the edge of the road. His whimsical, masterful depictions of Jamaican life regularly inspire impulse buys from passersby.
reviewed
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Rutland Point Craft Centre
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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A Fi Wi Plaza
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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Negril Crafts Market
There are three main crafts centers: Rutland Point Craft Centre opposite Couples Negril, the Negril Crafts Market just north of Plaza de Negril and A Fi Wi Plaza.
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Swa Craft Centre
Behind the Manchester Shopping Plaza, this place trains young women to make a living from crochet, embroidery, weaving and so on. Its most appealing item is the famous ‘banana patch’ Rastafarian doll.
reviewed
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Siddhia Hutchinson Gallery
At this gallery of a local artist and designer, Siddhia Hutchinson, you can pick up first-class paintings of colorful tropical scenes. Siddhia also organizes periodic painting workshops.
reviewed
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Artistic Invisions
This gallery displays and sells the work of local artists, including paintings, mosaics and sea glass. You can even get your favorite piece reproduced on a mug or T-shirt.
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Philip Henry’s Art Bus
You might call in at Philip Henry’s Art Bus, roadside at Turtle Crawle Bay, to check out his array of woodcarving and assorted crafts.
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Bazar Varadero Publicigraf
In Parque Central. It’s a good place for ceramics, reproductions of famous paintings, artistic postcards, dolls, wall hangings, T-shirts and books.
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Galería Santiago
This gallery, on the southern side of Parque Céspedes, has quality art and there are several more galleries along Heredia east of here.
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Island Sculpture
Opposite Swaby’s Plaza, here a local called ‘LT’ crafts precious lignum vitae into abstract animal and mystical forms.
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Local Painters
See local painters at work - and buy their paintings too. You'll also find some of these folks on Calle Valdés and Calle Muñoz.
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K
Vieques Flowers & Gifts
On the Strip in Esperanza, this shop has everything from local crafts, pottery, clothes and – of course – fresh flowers.
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Mermaid Art Gallery
Part of the Calabash House hotel, this recently opened gallery specializes in excellent local woodwork and tie-dyed clothing.
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Taller de Cerámica Artística
Here you can buy fine artistic pottery (they’re made on the premises). Most items are in the CUC$200 to CUC$250 range.
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Taller La Musa
Call by this place opposite the Casa de la Cultura where you can seek out typically imaginative Baracoan art.
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Kuyaba Arts and Crafts Boutique
Kuyaba Arts and Crafts Boutique at the Kuyaba hotel sells Wassi Art pottery and other quality crafts.
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Ja-Ja Originals
Traditional gallery showing original painting and sculpture by noted local artists.
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Collectibles Art Gallery
Traditional gallery showing original painting and sculpture by noted local artists.
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Galería de Arte de Oriente
Probably the best gallery in Santiago de Cuba, the art here is consistently good.
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Palacio de la Artesanía
This store, located opposite the bus station, also sells handicrafts.
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