Principal's Message
Developing the Cultural / Creative Sector
The UWI has for decades put a
premium on cultural/creative
expression for its importance
in not only defining who we are as a
Caribbean people, but also in
enabling development of the individual
human potential. The
Faculty of Arts, later to be called
the Faculty of Humanities and
Education, was the second
Faculty to be added to The UWI
as early as 1950, in acknowledgment
of the need to
develop professionals in the
humanities. CARIMAC, since
1975 was added to that
Faculty to cater to the needs
of the regional media industry
that has burgeoned fully into
an important competitor on the
international market. Today, CARIMAC
trains students from the
region as video producers and
media writers, among others.
As early as 1968, the University
built the Creative Arts Centre
(PSCCA) to give home to the outpouring
of creative talent that
students exhibited and honed,
even as they pursued their academic
careers. One of the beneficiaries
of this physical space
for creative expression was the
University Singers. This group
was formed 10 years earlier, practising in classrooms and lecture halls
before the PSCCA was built. Such is the
Singers’ accomplishment that they have
toured internationally for more than 40
years, performing to highly sophisticated
audiences around the world. There can
be no gainsaying that the Singers are
regarded as a UWI Brand.
There are, of course, other notable cultural
/ creative groups on the campus
and in the halls of residence.
Panoriddim Steel Orchestra, the
Dramatic Arts Society, Pop Society,
University Chorale, Camera Club, Dance
Society and The Ensemble come readily
to mind. Student and faculty art and
craft exhibitions are common occurrences
at Mona.
Carnival celebrations, the initiative of
the Guild of Students, found support
from administration and have mushroomed
out of three hall bands into six,
with thousands of masqueraders and
supporters rounding Ring Road to the
music of calypso, annually. In this festival,
students are the creators of costumes,
players of pan and managers of
the related events.
With these mechanisms and our introduction
of first and second level training
in Creative Writing, Entertainment and
Cultural Enterprise Management and the like, The UWI collaborating with the Edna Manley School of
the Creative Arts, has been bringing professionalism to our
students, our nation and our region’s creative expression.
It is time, however, to acknowledge that as a nation, we
are not doing nearly enough to develop the required
human resources in the creative and performing arts in
light of the current explosion of the creative industries on
the world stage. The cultural and creative industries sector
is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world economy,
contributing, it is estimated, seven percent of GDP. It
is expected to grow at a rate of 10 percent per annum.
The sector is expanding at a faster rate than that of the
rest of the industrial and commercial economy in Europe.
That Jamaica and the Caribbean have significant comparative
advantage in various aspects of the creative industries
that include music, the visual and performing arts, literature,
film, broadcasting, multimedia, book publishing, masquerade,
fashion, and festivals, has been long established.
What is clear is that we have not capitalised on this advantage
to poise ourselves towards diversifying our failing
economy in significant ways.
A recent CARICOM report notes that the region’s graduates
in arts disciplines have demonstrated they are equipped
with the appropriate skills and abilities to operate effectively
in the marketplace. In particular they display
resourcefulness, entrepreneurial skills, and the capacity to
establish new and innovative enterprises. What they need
is to be supported by an entrepreneurial, managerial and marketing capability from within our business sector and
strong state support, facilitation or leadership. Put simply,
Jamaica and the Caribbean lack the supporting national
and regional structures to deliver the creative product to
the world market.
Support to the Creative / Cultural Industries sector will
require strengthened collaborations, and investments in
modern, well-equipped creative and cultural education
befitting an increasingly digital world society and economy.
Our marketing, entrepreneurial and legal education and
training resources must be geared towards developing the
skills required to get the creative / cultural product to market
and to profit fully from that transfer. Research is
required that will lead to recommendations for recognising
the cultural industries as an economic sector. There is
need for private and public investment to build a comprehensive
arts infrastructure in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Further, a national education curriculum, including continuing
education, which builds creative as well as business
skills, needs to be developed.
We have come a long way from envisioning the arts in education
as something useful for civilising individuals and cultures,
important as that may be. World economic
development currently places a premium on creative expression
as an engine of growth. We owe it to our societies and
our creative citizens to actively assist in engineering a
national and regional creative / cultural industries infrastructure that will facilitate significant development gains.
Professor Gordon Shirley, OJ
Pro Vice Chancellor and Principal
UWI, Mona Campus
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