Art Islands: Remote Destinations For Experiencing The Arts

Remote, intimate, and almost entirely focused on the arts, these diverse island communities in locales from Newfoundland to Abu Dhabi are some of our favorite destinations for spending quality time with artworks.

A young couple from Hong Kong stand on a cliff’s edge snapping selfies as a crimson ball of sun sinks into the surrounding Seto Sea. The scene is not an uncommon one for travelers, but what is unusual is the abundance of art surrounding the pair on this otherwise remote island. To their right is Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dotted pumpkin, catching copper glints of the disappearing sunlight. To their left are four fat animal sculptures by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle. And directly in front of them is Dan Graham’s Cylinder-Bisected by Plane, a glassy kiosk-sized prism that gives the optical illusion of two different human reflections merging into one. This island—Naoshima—is home to a constellation of artwork including site-specific pieces by Karel Appel, Walter De Maria, and Hiroshi Sugimoto. There are four James Turrells and four stand-alone museums, each designed by Japanese Pritzker Laureate Tadao Ando. In one sits an oversized Claude Monet painting that could make the most ardent haters of Impressionism rethink their opinion. And that’s precisely what the goal is. Naoshima’s visitors are intentionally stranded on the island with nothing but art.

Art Islands are nothing new, but they’re becoming increasingly popular travel destinations as more and more enclaves become developed in places as disparate as Newfoundland, Japan, and Abu Dhabi—where the forthcoming Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island is planned, pictured left. While art has been an agent for wanderlust since Neolithic druids traveled to Stonehenge, the promise of encountering new works in a foreign land is not always enough to lure visitors in today’s art-saturated world of international fairs, museum exhibitions, gallery shows, expos, and choked social media feeds. But to spend true downtime with art—alone on a deserted island—is a luxury some are willing to spend large sums of money to experience.

Here, we've highlighted five notable offshore escapes for the arts. They're all (for the most part) intentionally remote, offering visitors a chance to connect to works without distractions. The fixed amount of art allows visitors to focus on what’s present without worrying about what's to see at the next booth; while the (sometimes) spotty cell reception keeps viewers from getting sucked into the dramas of their smart phones. From New York to Newfoundland, get off the mainland and spend some quality time with the arts.

sourced:departres.com