The Centro Nacional de Arte, Artesanato e Design (CNAD) is Cape Verde's national centre for art, crafts and design, housed in a restored colonial mansion near the seafront. It opened in its current expanded form in 2021 and is the best place in the country to see contemporary Cape Verdean visual art alongside the historical craft tradition.
Permanent rooms cover wood carving, pottery, weaving, and the distinctive panu di terra cloth of Santiago; rotating exhibitions feature work from artists across the archipelago and the wider Lusophone world. The building itself, with its restored tiled floors and inner courtyard, is worth the small entrance fee. Allow about an hour.