Art Week did not wait for us to take our seats at the ARTTable.
Date: September 7, 2026, 7:00 PM
Location: Bernard van de Veen Zeppenfeldstraat, in front of ArtisA Gallery, San Nicolas
Organizer: ArtisA
Theme: Nature × Mankind
Participants: 100+
As we parked, Art Week offered its first surprise: Carlos Alberto’s underwater world sweeping across the long-vacant former police housing. Its broken windows were gone, and the building itself had become a canvas.
Something exciting was clearly taking shape farther down the street, where a scissor lift hovered beside another wall. Of course, we wandered over for a closer look.
Tristan Faro was working from the lift. I soon connected him with one of my favorite murals only a bit farther down the street: a pair of donkeys painted with warmth and simplicity, framing a vivid turquoise door.
Discussing the work with Tristan, another artist introduced himself simply as ChemiS.
The setting could not have been better. Directly across from us was his mural, The King of the Streets, a neighborhood favorite we knew had to be part of our Kukoo Kunuku Taste of San Nicolas experience. In this city, the walls practically tell their own stories.
If there is one thing I have learned about San Nicolas, it is that one discovery leads to another.
ArtisA set the week in motion with its signature ARTTable, gathering artists and the community quite literally around the same table and inviting one hundred people to create art of their own.
We toasted with Prosecco, tied on matching smocks and took our seats beneath strings of warm lights. One hundred easels and blank canvases waited before us.
The theme: Nature × Mankind. Some of us paused to consider what that meant. The accomplished artists among us went straight to work.
Directly to my left was artist Suelyn Dankerlui. Just beyond her sat artist and photographer Annemiek van Vliet. Both began with practiced confidence.
Suelyn painted flowers with ease, pressing and gently rocking the bristles until each stroke opened into a petal. Her remarkably clean brushes gave away her experience.
When she asked me to pass the white paint, she said, “I use a lot of white,” and filled the center of her palette with it.
And so did I.
Canvas by canvas, our table came alive with flowers, seashells, butterflies, horses and abstractions. The same theme unfolded differently on every canvas, each painting entirely its own. Annemiek painted a woman surrounded by magnificent flowers.
Painting on rollerblades has become Jean Cherouny’s signature. That evening, she made her rounds on foot, suggesting greenery for my painting and pointing to the black peeking through my colors. She called it “hidden and seen.”
I smiled. Somehow, I had happened upon a technique.
Layered like paint on our canvases, Afrobeat, live steelpan, laughter and clinking glasses gave the evening its pulse. An occasional island breeze moved along the table as easily as the conversation.
Volunteers exchanged muddy water for clean, kept glasses filled and made sure one hundred painters had everything they needed. Photographers documented it all. The ArtisA team made the evening appear effortless, though the work behind it was anything but.
By evening’s end, one hundred blank canvases had become ninety-nine ideas. Two canvases were twinning: elegant women in profile, painted in luminous gold, their faces framed by leaves.
With Art Fashion, the three-day Aruba Art Fair and Sunday’s mural tour all still to come, we were only halfway through Art Week and already knew one week was nowhere near enough. We were fully invested.
Creating our new Kukoo Kunuku Taste of San Nicolas experience has made wandering these streets one of the most enjoyable parts of my work. Our hand-painted buses seem perfectly at home traveling among the murals.
Typically, a visit to San Nicolas sends me home with a new story and, quite often, a piece from one of its galleries. This time, the canvases we took home were our own, and we left feeling like artists, paint on our hands and all.
Art seemed to be everywhere that evening, from the murals we discovered before we ever reached the table to the artists painting beside us and circulating throughout the night offering advice. These are just a few who became part of our Art Week experience.
His new underwater mural sweeping across the long-vacant former police housing was our first Art Week surprise. His work continues next door across the San Nicolas police station, wrapping from the front around the side of the building.
We met Tristan high on a scissor lift, working on a new mural. I soon connected him with another favorite nearby, the pair of donkeys painted with warmth and simplicity, framing that vivid turquoise door.
We met ChemiS surrounded by his work. Across from us was The King of the Streets, while two brand-new murals were still taking shape nearby, one featuring a young boy sounding a bugle and another a girl carrying a flag. His work can be found throughout San Nicolas, including Sonrisa, La Abuela and Life Is Life, the wonderful mural above Space 21 Gallery where two children fish as a mischievous seagull joins the story.
Seated directly to my left, Suelyn painted flowers with practiced ease. She recently painted Sunrise and Sunset live on Palm Beach for Boardwalk Boutique Hotel’s Twin Art project. One of the companion works was auctioned to support earthquake relief in Venezuela and Colombia.
On the other side of Suelyn was artist and photographer Annemiek van Vliet, whose work has been exhibited in Aruba for years. That evening she painted a woman surrounded by magnificent flowers, one of the paintings I found myself admiring throughout the night.
An artist and longtime art educator, Jean is known for her distinctive Active Expressionism. She literally skates paint across canvas on rollerblades. Her work has been exhibited internationally, and since making Aruba home, she has become actively involved with ArtisA and the island’s art community.
Andre’s work explores African heritage and the history of the transatlantic slave trade. His Fort Zoutman exhibition brought together nearly 30 works honoring the sovereignty, dignity and spiritual strength of African ancestors.
Aruba columnist Rona Coster and I painted side by side. I think we would both agree neither of us qualifies as an accomplished artist, but we had paintbrushes in our hands. So for the evening, let’s say we were artists too.
Yes. San Nicolas is Aruba’s street art district, with murals created by Aruban and international artists. The largest concentration can be found around the city center, the promenade and ArtisA Gallery.
The outdoor murals can be enjoyed throughout the year. You can explore them independently on foot, take a guided mural tour, or experience many of them during Taste of San Nicolas. San Nicolas is about a 30-minute drive from Oranjestad and can also be reached by public bus.
Yes. ArtisA is a gallery in San Nicolas. San Nicolas is also home to the Museum of Industry inside the historic Water Tower and the San Nicolas Community Museum in the restored Nicolaas Store. Check current opening hours before visiting.
Art Week Aruba is an annual celebration of art and culture in San Nicolas. In 2026, events included ARTTable, ArtFashion, the Aruba Art Fair and a mural tour. Dates and programming can change from year to year, so check the current Art Week schedule when planning a visit.
Art Week returns once a year, but you do not have to wait that long to experience San Nicolas.
I’ve been spending months here creating Taste of San Nicolas, a new Kukoo Kunuku evening experience planned for January 2027 and centered around the city’s murals, local culture and food. The experience follows the murals at twilight before settling in for a relaxed dinner inside one of San Nicolas’s historic buildings, opened exclusively for our group.
Brand Manager, Kukoo Kunuku & Jolly Pirates | Creator of Taste of San Nicolas
Carla Cavallaro has called Aruba home since 1989 and helped launch Jolly Pirates in 1997. She created Taste of San Nicolas, a curated food, art and culture experience showcasing a side of Aruba most visitors never see. She contributes stories to Yummy Aruba, part of Aruba Wine and Dine, writing about Aruba’s history, people, art, food, sea life and the stories behind the places visitors experience today.
Read more of her stories at Kukoo Kunuku and Jolly Pirates.
