Tourism and the cultural and creative industries stand to gain long-term benefits from the decision to retain infrastructure developed for CARIFESTA XV, according to Education Minister Sandra Husbands.
She welcomed the move by the Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, to preserve the arts festival’s Grand Market site, describing it as an investment that would help sustain the island’s cultural tourism offerings.
At the We Gatherin’ St James and Atlantis Submarines Barbados Adventure event – where 21 children from the parish were treated to a submarine excursion – Husbands said such spaces would provide vital platforms for cultural expression and economic opportunity.
“We earn our living from tourism, but Barbados has one of the highest repeat guest rates in the world,” she told reporters. “People come here 25 years, 30 years, 40 years… five years of being on the beach, drinking some rum punch and sporting your bikini, what else is there to do? So you have to have activities.
“Now on an island 166 square miles, you cannot keep building spaces like for Atlantis Submarine or Harrison’s Cave or Andromeda Gardens… so how do you freshen up? You do that by creating events using your culture, using your heritage.”
The minister stressed that the infrastructure developed for CARIFESTA could now serve as a launchpad for emerging creatives, particularly younger artists aiming to pursue their craft full time.
Husbands said: “Many creatives have died [before] we had the platforms for them to convert their interests into a genuine career where they could actually earn money. Having these spaces now provides them with the opportunity to be able to do that, and I’m excited about it because at BCC [Barbados Community College], we have our fine arts and our mass media training. What we want to be able to do is to be able to help them to commercialise those talents and to use those spaces.”
She also responded to recent comments by Daniel Best, the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, who said growth of the orange economy required stronger collaboration between creatives and financial institutions.
She added: “If you’re going to take the orange economy to the very highest possible level, there are a number of things that has to happen. You have to be able to have the infrastructure and the resources in order for them to be able to exhibit their craft. We have to build the skill sets across the orange economy so that you have available people who can help it to develop. Then the third thing that you’re going to need is the funding, the sponsorship.”
She cited CARIFESTA XV as proof of the potential for partnerships between the cultural sector and private sponsors.
Husbands said: “Now just think about what happened at CARIFESTA, the wonderful display of talent, the beauty of the cultural exhibitions that we saw. Any enterprise that wanted to promote their product would have wanted to be sponsors for CARIFESTA. Had they known it would have been so good, so big, so great, even more would have wanted to come on.
“That’s the point… once we put [those] things in place – you train the talent and the skill, you provide the support and the resources – then it’s going to be easier to get the funding because people see where they can get a bang for their buck by promoting at these events. So that’s what we have to work towards.”
(SB)
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