Titus de Boer, the German-born businessman who opened the Turks and Caicos Islands' first professional art gallery in April 1990, is the subject of the first instalment of a new Weekly News series on the Islands' creative talent. His Bamboo Gallery in downtown Providenciales ran for 20 years, promoting local artists and teaching newcomers how to sell their work.
De Boer, who moved to TCI in 1989 aged 23 after working as a journalist in Hamburg, recalls his business licence application was initially rejected because officials "claimed it was a retail operation". Among the first artists he championed was a young Dwight Outten of Middle Caicos, whose portraits and wildlife paintings he praises for their purity and honesty. He also mentored Haitian artist Benada Oduma, advising him to paint "from the heart", a shift that produced a distinct surrealist style. He tells schoolchildren that good art must be original and honest, and calls the talks his most rewarding work.
His second gallery, TDB Fine Arts inside the National Museum in Grand Turk, opened in 2023 but closed two years later amid shifting global economics and unpredictable cruise passenger shopping. Now living in Grand Turk, de Boer remains optimistic, noting that art budgets have grown so significantly that artists with corporate clients in Providenciales can now make a very good living.