When we were doing some maintenance on the palapa of Hòfi Kultural this week, we unexpectedly received a visit from one of the participants of the music activities. He told us that he finds the place of Hòfi Kultural so special, but actually knew little about the history and origin of the place. We told him about our work through the years and it inspired us to tell more about it in this blog.
The foundation stone of Hòfi Kultural was laid on February 18, 2016 by a committed lover of community art from the neighborhood, Hyacinta Mercelina and one of our sponsors and music lover Louis Posner.
At the time, we decided to build Hòfi Kultural, because we noticed that there were few cultural meeting places on Bonaire. Places for people to come together and be culturally active. The community centers were impoverished and there was no theater or concert hall on the island. We had been organizing all kinds of cultural projects since 2010 and wanted to create a place where, in a sustainable way, people could come together in a familiar nice place. That actually used to happen on Bonaire in the old days, just sitting together somewhere under a tree. Only there were not such large trees on our property and we decided to make a canopy – a palapa.
We made a drawing of the entire complex, with toilets, an office and accommodation for artists and applied for a permit. We also wanted everything to be wheelchair friendly. The oval shape of the palapa symbolizes unity and a sense of community. A change in the zoning plan, adding the cultural destination endorsement, turned out to be necessary. So we were finally able to start constructing in the of course 2016. The wood and leaves came from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic and the palapa was built by Javier and Gibi from Rincon. The fact that the palapa felt so high was actually a surprise to us, but besides the beauty of it, it turns out to be very good for the water drainage. That's why the papala is still in such good condition. BonNed took care of the final finishing of the buildings and the fencing.
The construction was made possible by a contribution from the Doen Foundation, which supports charities on behalf of the Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands. They contributed to the construction costs of the palapa, on the condition that we would make the place available for art and cultural activities for a period of at least 5 years. And that certainly worked.
At Hòfi Kultural we have done a lot of great activities and projects since then. We also hope that for the participants of all activities, the experiences gained will continue to be an incentive to continue making beautiful music and art together.