Investing in Jamaica’s creatives
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As part of its contribution to the observance of Jamaica’s celebration of its 59th year of Independence, the City of Miramar in South Florida this year presented a number of cultural offerings to its residents. Ranked as the sixth-largest city in the state, Miramar is home to a significantly large cluster of Jamaicans, and it should come as no surprise that Mayor Wayne Messam is of Jamaican parentage and that its entire slate of commissioners are Jamaicans.
Two of the city’s cultural offerings for the period included “An Evening with Jamaican Sculptor, Basil Barrington Watson, CD” held on Thursday, 4 August 2021, and the City of Miramar’s “Jamaica Emancipendence Celebrations” held on 6 August 2021. Both functions were fitting tributes to an island that has been described as “The Pearl of the Caribbean.” I attended both functions, the first being the Basil Watson function, and the latter as a participating vendor, capitalizing on the opportunity to showcase a number of new T-Shirt designs highlighting Jamaica’s reggae music.
Basil Watson is my old schoolmate from Kingston College and although we shared time in (the late) Alexander Cooper’s art classes during our third through fifth form years, I had not seen him in a while. However, I never missed an opportunity to attend his shows while we both lived in Jamaica. In the circumstances, the “Evening with Basil” was for me, quite personal. It provided an opportunity for reflection at both the personal and at the national levels.
For years, Basil challenged me to get back into my art, to start painting again and, in 2005, I took his advice and it has been a rewarding experience. Beyond that though, the function provided an opportunity for reflection, especially to come to terms with the tremendous opportunities that are available for Jamaicans back home to carve out a niche in the global art world. It was heartening that Mayor Messam issued a necessary challenge to the audience to support their local artists as they are a significant component of the documentation of our history. I could not agree with him more. It is one thing for our home-grown artists to be able to market their works to foreigners, but that market has to start with the members of the Jamaican Diaspora. Jamaican art, as Mayor Messam opined, represents the immortalizing of Jamaicans stories for posterity, no less than our music and dance do.
It is significant, too, that Jamaicans become aware of the fact that the global art market is worth nearly US$60 billion and that the only people stopping Jamaicans from capturing a share of this market are ourselves. I believe that we have not done enough to realize the value of the largely untapped creative industry back home, which requires very little import content, yet having the ability to contribute exponentially to the island’s earning capacity via marketing intellectual property including Jamaican art.
In the early 1970s, the island invested heavily in the creation of the Cultural Training Centre which was later renamed the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. It is this institution that helped to hone the talent of Basil Watson as an internationally renowned sculptor and multiple others who have broken through locally and crossed over into the international sphere. While I did not attend the institution, its value in contributing to our development has not been lost on me. To make all this work though, we need to support the work of the island’s creative people by purchasing the works of our local artists. Whether you start with original pieces or prints, it represents a start. Find an artist or group of artists whose work appeals to you. Talk with them where possible and, when you can, attend their shows. Most will work out payment arrangements with you to make it easier to acquire their work. I certainly do.
Now let us push forward to Jamaica’s 60th.
Richard Hugh Blackford is a Jamaican creative artist residing in the United States.
