CULTURE
THE ARTS AT HEART
At Drift you just might share your stay with an artist, as we collaborate with them on a wide range of small-scale, high-quality cultural activities. We host exhibitions, lectures, poetry nights, live music and yes the occasional showcase by our artist-in-residence.
These non-profit activities are funded through a percentage of the hotel’s revenue. This allows us to ensure the continuity of an unsubsidized cultural program, while reinvesting locally and reaching people from all walks of life. The local community is always warmly welcomed. We call it gentlification, a pun on gentrification.
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Are you a poet, painter, or performer? Whatever you are creating, we aim to make you feel at home, so you can continue to share wonder, imagination, and meaningful work.
Spend your days within our building and the distinctive neighbourhood of Ser’i Otrobanda, where inspiration awaits around every corner, alongside opportunities to connect with local artists from our network.
Does this sound like your kind of inspiration? Send us an email with what you would like to create and when. We’ll reach out if we need more information or once you’ve been selected. We love to nurture culture.
MACHIEL HAGEDOORN
Throughout our monument, you’ll encounter works by our uncle, Machiel Hagedoorn (1911–1988), a renowned impressionist painter. Born in Rotterdam in 1911, he studied at art school there before the Second World War and later began working at Shell Curaçao.
At Shell, he earned the nickname “the carpenter with paint,” as he worked as a carpenter while also gaining recognition as a set builder for the theatre and as an artist in his own right.
Hagedoorn retired around 1962 and returned to the Netherlands. He stopped working with oil paint, feeling that the colder climate prevented the paint from drying properly. The pencil drawings and watercolours he created thereafter are of remarkable quality.
As a tribute to his legacy, we are proud to share a small selection from our family collection.
