Arts students encouraged to expand their vision

Noting that not everyone in Barbados has the opportunity or finances to leave the island, young, talented artistes are being advised to expand their vision and look for other ways of pushing their talents.

 

The Barbados Advocate recently got the chance to speak with a few young adults who left Barbados to pursue their dreams of further developing their crafts. Chris Rose, a former student of the Combermere Secondary School, who moved to Canada with plans to study Engineering, quickly changed those plans as his love for music eventually pushed him towards music production, a field he is now heavily involved in. He explained that there is very little support for artistic and talented persons in the island, and Rose is of the firm belief that given the variety of talent that can be found in Barbados, local artistes could easily compete with similar talent in North America.

 

He noted that even though Barbados has the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA), the problem arises when persons wish to achieve greater skills in their craft or wish to showcase it, but are not provided with the opportunities to do so.

 

A young lady that left Barbados to study the arts in New York, who wished to remain anonymous, said that “there is a lot of talent in Barbados. And I’m not only talking about the singers and dancers, I’m talking about the painters, the graphic artists and the web designers as well.” 

 

She mentioned that one could start an Instagram page, where they post their best work for others to see and then promote the page.

 

“Get a SoundCloud page and just post your beats or your original pieces and then promote like crazy!” she exclaimed.

 

Rose agreed and said that the internet could be used as an outlet to showcase the talents and arts of locals to the world because it provides a way for Barbadians to easily promote themselves on the arts scene around the world. 

 

Melanie Jean-Baptiste, a former student of University of the West Indies, who left Barbados to pursue her Broadway dream mentioned that even though Barbados is small, there is a way for young artistes to find work, “you just need to network and put yourself out there so that you’re easily found by people looking to hire young, local artistes”.

 

Each of them believed that leaving Barbados did help them to nurture their skills and talents. This move, they say, also allowed them to make the necessary connections that they would have needed to succeed in their craft; much quicker than if they were living in Barbados. But they all agreed that the artistes that cannot afford to do so should not lose hope. Their advice to aspiring artistes like themselves is to use the technology and social media outlets that are available to them – YouTube, Instagram and SoundCloud in order to promote and market what they do, as they work towards being successful.