Jay Bluck was involved in Bermuda’s cultural scene for much of his life, owning the Heritage House art gallery, and playing key roles in the founding of some of the island’s most important institutions, including the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG) and the Bermuda Maritime Museum.
He served the Corporation of Hamilton as common councillor and alderman before becoming Mayor in May 2006, but died just four months into his term of office. His great-uncle William Bluck had also been Mayor, from 1914 to 1929.
Jay Bluck was born in Bermuda on September 29, 1940. He attended Saltus Grammar School and then Louisville Country Day School in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado from 1959 to 1963, earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science. At college he was President of the Independent Men’s Association, a member of The Mountain Club and a broadcaster on Radio Colorado College.
He played a key role in establishing the Bermuda National Gallery at City Hall. After the Bermuda Fine Arts Trust was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1982, Bluck spearheaded the drive to raise more than $2 million to make the dream a reality.
The fund-raising effort was sparked by the will of Hereward Watlington, one of the founders of the Fine Arts Trust, who bequeathed his priceless collection of European paintings to the Bermuda Government, with the proviso that the paintings be housed in a climate-controlled facility equal to the standard of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. If the proviso could not be met, the paintings would become the property of the Metropolitan Museum.
Jay Bluck’s vision and commitment helped ensure that the valuable collection would remain in Bermuda and it formed the basis of the BNG’s permanent collection. David L. White, who succeeded Bluck as BNG chairman, said after his death: “Without Jay Bluck there simply would be no Bermuda National Gallery.”
He became the Gallery’s first Chairman when it opened in March 1992, and remained on the Board of Trustees as Chairman Emeritus until his death.
A lifelong supporter of the arts, Jay Bluck was also founding trustee of the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard and supported many local artists by holding shows at the Heritage House Gallery, which he established on Pitts Bay Road in 1965.
He was also involved with the establishment of the Bermuda Maritime Museum, was a President of the Hamilton Rotary Club, and was appointed a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International for his services.
William Bluck and Co. (now Bluck’s), the landmark china and glass store on Pitts Bay Road, was established in 1844 as a general store by Bluck’s great-grandfather, John Bluck, who came to Bermuda from Bewdley, Shropshire, England in 1816.
Bluck worked in the business as a summer student and full-time before opening Heritage House next door, selling antiques and artwork. Although not an artist himself, he had a keen eye for spotting nascent artistic talent as well as valuable antiques. Among the many Bermudian artists who benefited from exposure at the Gallery early in their careers were Stephen Card, Graham Foster, Helen Daniel, Jonah Jones, Christopher Grimes, Erica and Diana Amos, Sheilagh Head, Maria Smith and Eldon Trimingham.
Heritage Gallery closed in 2000, the victim of the downturn in tourism and was replaced by an office development. Bluck then worked as a consultant in the development and entertainment business and latter with Leonard Gibbons as an auctioneer.
He was married twice. He met his first wife, American Barbara Wadell, while studying at Colorado College. The couple were married in 1963 and had two sons, John (b.1966) and Gregory (b. 1970). They divorced in 1984 and Jay married his second wife, Audrey Weatherhill, in 1998.
In November 1996, Jay Bluck was given a Lifetime Achievement from the Bermuda Arts Council for his role in establishing the Bermuda National Gallery and his work as a benefactor in showcasing the work of young Bermudian artists at Heritage House.
On September 1, 2006, he died at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital of heart failure after being rushed to emergency two days before. He was 65.
