By Shamar Blunt and Tracy Moore
Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s announcement that the CARIFESTA Village at Waterford will be preserved and transformed into a permanent cultural hub—to be renamed CARIFESTA House—is being hailed as a landmark moment for Barbados’ creative economy.
The move has won praise from cultural stakeholders, including Andrea King, director of Culture & Arts for Love and Living (CALL Barbados), and Sean Apache Carter, president of the Barbados Association of Creatives and Artistes, who said it signals a new era for Barbados’ creative economy.
Both praised the government’s commitment to purpose-built spaces for the arts, describing it as a long-awaited boost for performers, producers and cultural entrepreneurs.
King, who also produces the Bridgetown International Arts Festival, said new and refurbished venues, including CARIFESTA House, the Richard Stoute and Marcus Garvey amphitheatres, and the National Performing Arts Centre, are “engines for economic activity” that could position Barbados as a regional hub for the creative industries.
“The artistic community is glad that the Prime Minister and substantive Minister of Culture has answered the call,” King said. “These spaces must be maximised through artists taking charge of their careers, not simply waiting for the government to hire them, but using these venues to generate their own revenue through properly registered businesses, events and partnerships. Government has created an enabling environment.”
Carter, who spoke to Barbados TODAY in a separate interview, focused on the impact for theatre practitioners and the urgent need for dedicated venues. He described the new performance arts centre in Newton as “a lifeline” and said creatives have long struggled to find spaces that suit their craft.
“Every year during Crop Over, you see there is a hunt or a search to find appropriate venues,” he noted. “Even when you look at the use of the LESC or the Gymnasium, these spaces were not created for creatives…there are very few dedicated spaces for creatives.”
He also said the additional venues will be a lifeline for the dramatic arts.
“It gives the theatre art practitioners a sense that they’re not being left out or left behind, but they’re being considered,” Carter said. “I look forward to those spaces being utilised… we have a wealth of talent here, but sometimes it lacks the stage to give exposure.”
BACA President Sean ‘Apache’ Carter. (FP)
With planning for NIFCA already underway and Crop Over 2026 bookings beginning, King urged the authorities to give clarity on how the new venues will operate.
“Naturally, artists will want to know very soon the procedures, rental policies and costs associated with using these facilities so that they can begin to plan their projects and engage the new spaces effectively,” she said.
Prime Minister Mottley announced the plan for CARIFESTA House at the closing ceremony for CARIFESTA XV.
“You have spoken definitively in the last week,” Mottley told the hundreds at the Richard Stoute Amphitheatre. “You have said, Prime Minister, do not take down CARIFESTA Village. I am here as a faithful and obedient servant, that that village shall now be known as CARIFESTA House, to celebrate the arts and creativity of Caribbean people forever.”
CARIFESTA House will be situated in the Waterford district, alongside developments such as the Richard Stoute Amphitheatre and the new National Stadium, creating a cultural and sporting corridor.
“What you see unfolding before you in this Codrington-Waterford district is a district of the performing arts and sports, with the development of this—which is the Richard Stoute Amphitheatre, which is only partway, [and] with the development of the new National Stadium, with Tyrol Cot, the home of the only Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation around the corner,” she explained.
The investment forms part of a wider programme of cultural development.
At Newton, work is underway on the Heritage District: “Over the last six years, I have worked with the Ministry of Finance, little by little, to make sure that what you will soon see at Newton will be the Heritage District, starting with the monument, celebrating the lives and resilience of the 570 slaves that were buried on that plantation,” Mottley said.
She added that the district also houses the National Performing Arts Centre, which has already hosted productions such as Mansa Musa and a tribute to songwriter Irving Burgie during the ten-day festival.
In addition to those structures, she stated that an additional two structures may soon be erected: “And eventually, you will see the National Genealogical Research Centre, and hopefully, the museum that will speak to the world about what we went through for over three centuries with respect to slavery and colonialism.”
She continued: “This Caribbean festivity does not stand in isolation. This is about building a people, building a region, building a civilisation, and reclaiming our destiny.”
Mottley linked these investments to the legacy of Barbados’ first CARIFESTA in 1981, which led to the creation of the National Cultural Foundation.
She stressed that investing in culture is as important as meeting economic needs: “Life, yes, must give us shelter and food and work. Those are essential. But as human beings, we need nourishing of the soul. And whether it is through acknowledging our heritage, or whether it is through reflecting on our Caribbean civilisation, or whether it is through tasting the wonders that we have as Caribbean people with the influences from the world that made us unique, or whether it is in the celebration through movement, dance, music, art, craft, we have to be able to nourish our souls.”
(SB/TM)
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