See CARIFESTA as opportunity to export regional culture to world

Look at the Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA) as an opportunity to export Caribbean culture to the rest of the world.

 

This is the advice that  Minister  Stephen Lashley sent out to participants as he delivered remarks at the UNESCO Workshop on the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions held at the Accra Beach Hotel and Spa yesterday.

 

He also encouraged them to view this upcoming festival to strategically place themselves on the international market when it comes to culturally diverse products.

 

“I believe that CARIFESTA needs to be seen not only as a show in relation to our artistic communities, but at this stage, we have to see CARIFESTA as an opportunity for the export of Caribbean cultural content and to take advantage of the major opportunities within the international market for leveraging the positioning of our cultural goods and services.”

 

The Minister of Culture said that they are already planning how they are going to utilize this festival to execute this goal and they have already lined up some big names in the entertainment industry 

for precisely this purpose.

 

“In CARIFESTA of course we are going to place a significant amount of attention on this goal where CARIFESTA can be seen as a major platform for showcasing what the region has to offer to the rest of the world and we have quite a bit of unique artistic talent that we can use in relation to CARIFESTA.”

 

Lashley said that this country is well ahead in terms of planning for this much anticipated event which would take place next year and this three day workshop can be used as a mechanism to facilitate the discourse by stakeholders in the cultural industry across the region on how the various islands can maximise the potential from this festival.

 

“As we in Barbados are in the advanced stages of planning the hosting of the Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA) in 2017, this workshop could also serve as a meeting of minds where the regional cultural directors and advisors, who are here as participants, can take the opportunity to discuss meaningful ways of incorporating the protection and promotion of different cultural expressions into the artistic work being undertaken at the regional level, and which may be on show here in Barbados during CARIFESTA.”