Value in the arts

WHILE economists focus primarily on the financial gains that can be derived from the arts, its intrinsic value to the people of the region should not be overlooked.

 

So says Yvonne Weekes as she delivered remarks at the opening ceremony of the inaugural CAPE & CSEC conference on Monday night at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.

Weekes, who is the Chairman of the conference, explained that it is intended to improve the content, programme design, set structures of the subjects and generally prepare students for a new society.  

 

She lamented that at a time when Caribbean governments are concerned about diversifying the region’s economies as well as building a sustainable and creative ecology, one of the major planks in this approach, the training and education of arts teachers, is constantly overlooked.

 

“We here know what needs to be done. It is more than just passing exams it is about soothing the souls of our students, nurturing their love for creative expression, recognising their ability to configure, deconstruct, texts and symbols in order to recreate or perhaps destroy and make new. In this process, we may produce dancers, actors, dramatists and film makers and so on, but the challenge is how do we close this gap between policy and programming?”

 

In order to fill these gaps, she suggested that there must be a collective effort across the region. “The Department of Festival and Creative Arts in St. Augustine, the Fine Arts Department at BCC, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts…all the performing arts entities and EBCCI need to transform our society in a way that is cohesive and not competitive that recognises our strengths and weaknesses.”

 

The chairman said this collaborative effort would build on the traditions of excellence from each other and would allow these entities to find ways of working together in a way which allows the technical and human resources to benefit all CARICOM citizens. She further suggested that this would allow those grounded in the sense of who they are and are not afraid of traditional or cultural icons or characters, to have an understanding of their history and the role that these characters play in developing new works in dance, music and drama and film.

 

To this end she said there ought to be one regional and cohesive framework, bringing people together in a unified effort. She said that the facilitators of the conference, many of them creators of art will bring their skill-sets to the conference. (JH)