The CSME and the Future of Our Artists

There is an important difference between art as an avocation and art as a vocation. Professional art at any level is a business venture which can only work when it is treated as one.

The historical effects of society's underplaying of art is to deny our young school leavers a lucrative career choice and this continued concentration on the more traditional academic vocations, has indeed begun to offer up some stark realities in our economy.

This has begun to manifest itself as an oversight in the minds of the architects of our educational system because too many are left by the wayside.

Today, there is no ignoring the need for a complete about turn with respect to developing a cultural approach to education and the inevitable acceptance of the fact that it is only by nurturing and stimulating the creative potential of our human resource that we can certainly exploit all of our possibilities for full cultural development.

There is no denying therefore, that such a revelation has come at an opportune time, as the Caribbean region has proven itself to be fully nourished in the area of creativity, and has the potential to become a force to reckon with on the global market.

The fact that the new paradigm of the CSME will provide an outlet for our artists who want to unleash their creative talents in a plethora of expressive media, will bring new life and perhaps new hope for this prolonged, under-cultivated, yet very valuable human resource, especially since the most recent arrangements on freedom of movement include this special group.

Now is the time to embrace the talents of the products of a technologically driven society where creative expression is the vital component. Now is the time to look towards developing a creative industry where the skills of these artists can be fully utilized.

It is about time that our own Crop Over Festival boast its own designers in its reflection of Barbadian culture and be able to transport that skill to other regional festivals in much the same way that Trinidadians do.

It is time that our own textile designers see their clothing labels flaunted across the pages of glossy fashion magazines and their merchandize in every store. It is time that our performing and visual artists take on the region and the world as their stage. It is time for Caribbean culture to have a stake in the global market and it is certainly time to unleash a rich and unique creativity which is world class.

One point of concern is that within the CSME freedom of movement arrangements, we are not treating culture as special because of its great potential, but out of the assumption that if we allow our creative people to move freely, even with certification or accreditation, that we would be allowing them to abuse their freedom of movement, to pursue other professional opportunities.

However, this is a small price to pay for development because indeed most artists have had to depend on a second career in order to survive.

By Suzanne Phillips
Assistant Secretary General
e-mail: bango@socamail.com