 The panel, the discussion, an objective and impartial view of the issues of interest to you. Nation Beat is on now. For many decades, the South Alois Community College has been one of the island's biggest repositories of unherald talent, equipping thousands of young citizens with degrees and diplomas who are making their mark on island and abroad. Over the years, the college has adapted to include more digital solutions to their learning programs and today has further evolved with the assistance of the CDF to place a sharp focus on developing the innate talent and artistic creativity in its students. Every cooperation agreement... According to the chair of the board of SALCC, Mr. Cletus Springer, cooperation is the essence of life and the signing of this memorandum of understanding is a positive step in providing students with a healthy balance. The core purpose of education ought to be, in fact, must be to help our people to discover and to develop their innate talent. The South Alois Community College needs and appreciates the help of others so that it can do more to assist others. I have no doubt whatsoever, no doubt whatsoever about the positive impact this will have on the lives of our students and on the development trajectory of our country. Charing the CDF board, Mr. Dowingard expressed how he felt about the new partnership and the importance of art and creatives in education. I think that for the most part, artists have been left to chance, not with intent and purpose, but almost left to chance after probably secondary school to figure out exactly what it is they're going to do. When I heard about this partnership, I was elated. For me, it is a profound collaboration. It is one that we need to appreciate because of where it is going to go. For the artists who are going to take part in this project, I feel very inspired because for the first time, we are actually nurturing seeds from beginning to end. Representing the Ministry of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information was Anne Margaret Adams, who commended the organizations for the initiative. It is inarguable that this sector is of tremendous importance to our tourism industry and the economy as a whole. The Ministry is aware of the arduous work of the two agencies, CDF and Sir Arthur Lewis, in developing such a program over the past year. And we are excited. I said, pleased initially, but excited and inspired to be part in witnessing what is expected to be the commencement of much needed support in enhancing the competitiveness of the creative industry sector. Renowned sculptor and artist Jalem Yudovic brought the ceremony to a close with his own personal testimony and endorsement for art in education. What role does art play in our development? In terms of crafting our identity as a people and as a nation, what's the role of art? In terms of the development of our spirituality, our spiritual selves, and I believe that's where we make the error most times. We see art as a product, as a commodity. I believe that art is an essential part of the development of who we are. Officials from the CDF and SALCC have sworn to do all within their power to make this partnership a long-standing and fruitful one for college students, the creative industry sector and the wider nation. Hello everyone and welcome to a special launch of the business of the arts project. My name is Natsili Jodi-Fanes and today I am joined by representatives of three of our national developmental institutions and I have to put it that way because they have some responsibility in nation building. So joining me today to my immediate left is Jacqueline Alley and she is the project officer with the social development, Senusia Social Development Fund. Next to her in between the two ladies is Mr. Darwin Gard and he is currently the chairman of the Cultural Development Foundation and as you know they have a great developmental role in the creative industries and that is going to be our focus today. And our final panelist today is Ms. Cantilia Louie representing the South Alois Community College which as you know is the national tertiary institution of Senusia and of course I assume her responsibility is for the training aspect but we will get to that. So the creative industries as we know is such a vital component of our development of our economy these days generating so much fund and as we go into the carnival season we understand the relevance of that and of course it's important for everybody within that industry to be trained and to be a professional and we always need funding to be able to do that. So we're going to start first with the representative from the Senusia Social Development Fund Ms. Alley to tell us just about her entity's involvement in this project. Ms. Alley over to you. Thank you Ms. Fanes. Basically we received a proposal from the CDF asking for funding for a program, well actually two programs that we speak specifically on the business of the arts where it's a skills building skills training capacity strengthening program that is being funded by the Basic Needs Trust Fund and the Basic Needs Trust Fund is the flagship program developmental program of the Caribbean Development Bank and we receive grant funding to fund projects that in vulnerable communities or to assist vulnerable persons within Senusia. Great vulnerable persons within St. Lucia. So let's switch off to Mr. God one time. Mr. God how do the RTS that fall under the purview of the CDF how are they likely to benefit from that program that is going to be funded by the CDB? Well first of all I just want to thank the SSGF to BNTF for the funding and obviously the South Lewis Community College for making this happen for us partnerships and collaborations the things that we always look forward to in going forward if our mandate. How are they going to benefit? For us it's always about adding value to the artist and I think for us this particular project adds value in the sense that it allows for the artist now to have a business perspective. We understand the expansion of the creative industries in terms of you know the professionalism and branding and marketing and management and finances and for us that is truly important from a CDF's perspective we know in the past we have funded tremendously in terms of giving the artist directly. This time around though what we love about this project is that it is about the management to some extent of the artist and I think that adds to a wonderful contribution to the creative industries. Thank you so much Mr. God and we will get back to you for a little more development of those points but I want to just bring in Ms. Lucia here I have skills building I hear the importance of branding and the focus on management before you get into just explaining the program. For the initiation of this just what was the college and CDF thinking in terms of developing that program and what they wanted to achieve? Well Saffa Lewis Community College as you said as our tertiary institution we recognize that the creative industries is one of the fastest growing industries in St. Lucia and one of the pillars of course is making sure well I should say all three pillars of Saffa Lewis actually connect quite nicely with the development of the creative industries when you think of the idea of being innovative the need for sustainability that's something we hear all the time especially with parents with young you know creative industries practitioners saying how is my child going to be able to sustain a living in terms of this and of course our third pillar which is entrepreneurship. We are ensuring that okay this area which is growing which as we said is the way I think to go for us as a small developing state we need to ensure that we give all the skills necessary to our practitioners so that they cannot only make their mark here but globally. Great Mr. Goddard I wanted to reach back to you I think we are sure we know for sure that CDF provides a platform for our creatives where they organize activities or events that allow them to be showcased and now with this project you've written a proposal to seek funding and I know you've spoken to the fact that you want management and branding but based on what you see of our artist in St. Lucia can you speak more to how you're going to meet that need for training in terms of how the program was developed. Well first of all partnering with the Authorist Community College was important because for us again we have done a number of programs but we sought certification as being very important in the process. Too many times we've had programs where you just have the programs but at the end of the day the artist does not have certification so that's one thing for us that's important and that being said I think it's important to partner with a reputable educational institution that adds value to that to that to the certification. In terms of how we we're going to ensure here's what we've recognized. We recognize the need within the industry like I said to have management. If you look at the successes of a lot of the artists if you look at the successes of a lot of the artists you'd realize that those who do extremely well have management and for us that's important. Have management so maybe we will have to develop that a little bit in terms of because you think of artists having an external entity manage them I think that's some of what we have been seeing we see artists who will tell you I only want to focus on my craft and I don't want to get into the other things. How do you create that balance where they are not too bogged down with all of the other management how do they balance developing their craft and and having that skill. So I understand quite clearly what you mean by that you know artists go back and forth about I just want to be an artist and of course there's always the importance of management however it's also very important for the artists to understand that they're a professional they're a business or a business person and what does that mean in relation to the creative industries is different from other industries because you end up being a product to some extent. So how do you now as an artist as much as you want to focus on being an artist how do you make sure for example at the end of the month you can still pay your bills how do you make sure you get the best price for your services and products that is part of the the the skills these are some of the discussions the different things we were trying to ensure that we can give an avenue or a forum for the artists to understand. So through this program you can either one come out of it and manage artists or you can be an artist who understands yourself better as a professional because we like to use that word a lot especially in St. Lucia I am a professional but what does that really mean a professional has to balance all sides of the career and so with this we have a number of areas as we said not just looking at for example how do you go about organizing your finances to make sure you and you know in land revenue and good spare you know good standards for example but what does it mean when we say creative industries in St. Lucia and in the region we are going to examine what the trends are I find for example a lot of artists don't focus on one area how do you know which of your skills you can monetize and which should be just for development of yourself so this course this program is going to help them to find the right path the right turns to take and become in a better vision of themselves. Let me just add something quickly I'm hoping because of the uniqueness of this program I know there's a stress on the artist being able to what I expect may happen with this program is that some of the artists who go in may come out being managers of artists because of the perspective so I'm hoping that it's a it's a situation where the perspective on the management and the arts and creative industries is broaden to allow people to see other opportunities so some may go in as artists who just want to deal with themselves but may find that oh there's actually an opportunity to manage an artist what I'm doing and so probably now that the management side of things will probably come out which is extremely necessary as a potential to creative industries. Excellent we need to go to break I hope we have artists tuned in and if they are not I appeal to you to call them and ask them to join we are talking about a business of the arts program that is a collaboration between the South and the Wiskirvnity College the cultural development foundation and funded by CDB through the social development fund so stay tuned we will be right back to talk more about the qualification that will be received and why this program is one that you should be a part of. Stay with us. Be your brother's keeper make the change end the gun violence now. A message from the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment. Welcome back to the launch of the business of the arts program it's a project done in collaboration with the South Lewis Community College the Cultural Development Foundation and the St. Lucia Social Development Fund with funding from the business trust fund. I know I must start a letter in that but that's cool. If you were with us before we're going to continue our conversation if you're just joining us this is an exciting venture for our creatives again we speak to how the creative industries expanding it isn't a forerunner for economic development and it's important that we have all our artist qualified so we have with us a representative from the South Lewis Community College in the person of Ms. Cantilia-Louis why didn't say before but she's no she is a creative herself so she understands the dynamics and she was instrumental in having this program designed also with us is another creative himself brand designer Mr. Darwin God who currently serves as the chairman of the Cultural Development Foundation and the funding agency representing the funding agency we have with us Mr. Jacqueline Alley so in our first segment we were really speaking about the necessity of such a program and I want to go back to that a little bit with Ms. Alley just to say you she said to us that a proposal was written but I'm sure there are measures there are benchmarks that you use in terms of approving such things why did this project in particular qualify for funding okay the the mandate of the BNTF as I said is to reduce vulnerabilities and under the there are several sectors that the basicness trust fund CDB grant funding several sectors that we fund and and this particular project came under the human resource education and human resource development sector which also includes livelihood enhancement and this is where this fits in because the focus is on CDB the BNTF and the SSDF we all have the same mandate which is to reduce unemployment we CDB has an emphasis also on employment generation and entrepreneurship so the proposal when we got this proposal obviously it had to be the processes that we have to go through like needs assessments etc however it met a lot of the criteria and we also align a lot of our programs or projects that that are funded under the BNTF they're aligned with the SDGs also the sustainable development goals so we believe and specifically the employment generation part of it I also want to mention just to piggyback on something Mr. God said about certification it is BNTF CDB is very important they're very it is very important that when they fund skills training programs that the beneficiaries get certification that they could use outside of the country it's not specific to St. Lucia and they could go anywhere and gain employment with that excellent excellent Mr. God I'm hearing Miss Alessi creating employment but I'm also hearing within what she's saying the struggling artist yes and CDF coming to deal with that issue I think it's real I think we we know a lot of artists will tell you that they probably if there's not even paycheck to paycheck and sometimes people even take advantage of their talent in terms of just having them come to do something they don't know necessarily how to cost etc so to speak to CDF's representation of the struggling artist I think on a broader scale I don't think the the creative industries is still a developing industry the injection in terms of economics in the creative industry I think we can do a lot better I know government is actually helping in that regard but I think we can do a lot better in terms of creating an environment where the artists are able to do well and have access to a lot more opportunities but like any other budding industry anywhere but budding sector it will have its difficulties which is why when an SSDF comes to to say a listen we can help you move this forward and it's awful it's going to cause us hey we'll put this program together for you the CDF is is always happy to have these collaborations because we think it's important so I think the sector on the whole creates some kind of vulnerability but we're moving forward and like I said when we have these kind of collaborations it works certification first is very important because for our understanding is to do programs where you're not certified means that you probably secure in a particular space so if let me give an example if a business says I'm going to do a program most times these people remain in the program so there's no need for certification because it's training within a particular area but in terms of if you're getting you doing a program where you have to go outside certification is necessary I mean you know you want to present your your your collateral to whatever entity you going to so that they can see the the value that you come with the prerequisites for example for us is important so when you put all of that together you creating a valuable artist a valuable artist and a valuable contributor within a business and professional sector and for us that is the you know a part of what we're doing we understand the modernization of the industry we understand where it's going and so we want to create people within the sector who can thrive not just survive but thrive and we think that these that that is necessary okay let's talk about value a little more in terms of the level of qualification that the artist will receive miss me can you speak to that yes so it's a professional certificate so at the end of it's a three semester program you start off in August well September and you are done by August and the following year so it's a year-long program and you receive that certification and again Sir Arthur Lewis wanted to ensure that it is open to all who need it and so the requirement is three years experience in the sector that's it three years experience so you have to again it's not for someone just decided is this what I want to do it has to be for someone who has been in it and has had the different experiences because you're going to realize when you come into the program that for the different courses a lot of the material is actually your experience so I miss it more relevant yeah so when you leave there you are talking and you're relating everything that you do to your personal business your personal approach and we wanted to remove that you know I come I learn something and now let me go and try and apply it to what it is I am doing you are the subject matter and three years experience gives you enough for the for you to be able to analyze yourself to be able to you know apply the various approaches that will be exposed in the practice the participants do so it's it's a lot of application a lot of application let's speak still on on the qualification and where artists can take that because I think that's always an issue it is Arthur Lewis certificate yes it's coming from a community college a reputable educational institution how do you see and I think I would like both of you to answer that how do you see that transferring possibly to other islands or other regions is that a certificate that can carry that kind of weight and maybe even if they want to continue to pursue another level of education is that something where they can possibly get transfer credit yes definitely so the the program will be a prerequisite for certain courses at South always coming to college our creative industries and events management ad program our creative industry creative and performance programs and other programs it will be and because we have such a network with various colleges and not only in the region but internationally our certification is accepted so it would allow or it should be an avenue for artists if they want to continue not only here but go for the field that can be used to help them in terms of administrative at sorry admission into other programs so that sounds wonderful so it looks like we have to just take another break I really wanted to talk to cost and whether CDF would be charging anything for this but we take another break and when we come back we will be getting into the process how do you become part of this program statement for that I'm Chauvan Matthew I am the inspector in charge of the criminal investigations department in castries the IRS LPF has received several reports of a new scum targeting people who are looking to purchase vehicles via Facebook the scum involves the following steps the scum post an advertisement for a vehicle via Facebook using stolen photos and fake details then you'll be given a phone number and asked to contact this person to arrange some sort of meeting the scummer also asked you to ensure that you carry along with you cash at that vehicle as multiple buyers and will be sold if you do not purchase rather than asked to meet up at a private location where you'll meet up with an individual who will ask you for the money and hand you a vehicle key and will instruct you to go to a different location to collect the said vehicle perpetrators of this scum will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law I'm encouraging persons to report any suspicious advertisements or transactions the crime hotline 555 remember if it sounds too good to be true it probably is stay safe and be vigilant online thank you so much for staying with us we are getting to the most important part of the business of the arts program how can you as an artist access it so if you know an artist who's not watching please tell them we are continuing with this conversation about the business of the arts program that has been developed by the cultural development Foundation at CDF in collaboration with the South Lewis Community College as the training Institute and with funding from the basic needs trust fund I think I got that right this time so mr. God you have offered this program for the development of our teased it is a one-year you say three semesters it's not an accurate it's more than an academic year that's why she said three semesters but it's like a full calendar yeah for the most part this is I think it comes out of course the SSDF I'm not joking in terms of SSDF again has just done a wonderful job in getting funding for us and they've done such a tremendous job that the understanding again when I spoke about the vulnerability of artists is free because we understand yes if let me go back to FR that's right free it is but but it is because again we understand the help that the industry needs and the sector needs but in investing that money in these artists and these professionals what you're going to get out of that is far more than for me what it is we're going to inject and therefore we see the returns on on on on what we get from the artist and it was an easy it was an it was an easy it was easy for us to say it was free and like I said SSDF did a wonderful job in in supporting programs like this cannot happen with just one entity getting it done it has to be collaboration and again you know I just want to thank the SSDF and the staff of this committee college because what you see in here is the CDF being the administrator and saying a we want this program because we understand the need for it but then we need to get partners to help us move it forward and we needed the financing and also we needed the programming and I just think that the three entities coming together just did a remarkable job in making this project happen so again back to the question when you ask what is the cost because of the wonderful work that the SSDF has done in fine and seeking financing for this project it's absolutely free but then again I think they have allowed this because they themselves have seen the returns on the investment and them so I think it was the easy choice to make this office committee college obviously would have put the project together in terms of helping the the CDF in terms of understanding registration online start date what is necessary what period is necessary for the amount of students we have come in so like I said it is it is an idea it's a vision we had but visionaries need persons to make these things happen and we've brought the right persons on board I would allow Cantilia I think as she has some more information as it pertains to the registration and so forth the details so next so as we tell us tell the artist about the registration process for this program well you have until the 3rd of August to register for this program it's an online well the form is online you can go to the Sir Arthur Lewis committee college website or the CDF website and just sign up now I know it's free but of course you know we have limits when numbers are concerned so I urge persons don't wait do it as quickly as possible to make sure you can get into the cohort we are catering for persons north and south it doesn't matter where in the island you are from we are going to ensure that we do our best to make sure that you have access to this this program if you have any questions or queries please feel free to get in touch with Sir Arthur Lewis committee college or at CDF if you need assistance or clarification with any aspect of the form but it's a very simple form just fill it out give us your information as we said your experience and you'll start a wonderful journey with us I'm sure the artist would be interested in knowing with how the program will be offered is it in person is it online do you have a blended modality it's a blended modality so one of the things that we did with this program was to make sure that we have as we said balance we know artists are very busy and so the idea of trying to find three four days a week to be able to meet for classes may be difficult so there's some aspects of the for all the classes that will be online where you can go on and do some of the assignments and work on your own but at least once a week the participants will come together to discuss to work in their groups to be able to get feedback from the different lecturers and let me say when I say lecturers I use that not in the traditional you know way facilitators we deliberately went out and got practitioners experts in their field to be part of this so you're not only getting the knowledge from them but they're also given you real world experience they're telling you about what it is that they've done and the experiences that they've had and so you are sure by the end of the time you learn about as we said all areas and the last course you end up with a business plan you can go forward with so you'll know how to market how to use social media how to organize your finance in your management and how to be able to analyze the trends to know where you should go in terms of your product development that sounds like a complete package to me so for an artist who definitely has their head on and they want to continue in that field so just let me get it clear again so you use you give those the end date for registration when does registration open registration opens the 13th of July so it's just around the corner the 13th of July registration be open as we said you'll find the link on the Sa'afa-Lewis Community College webpage as well as the CDF webpage and it's only an online application online application so it's easy for everyone you have to worry about paper you can sit down on your phone and just do that quickly and that's it great so mr. God and given all of that what are your expectations about the response from the artist once we have launched this program no I think I think the artist will be excited I think that is something that the the entire sector is looking forward to so my expectation is that the Sa'afa-Lewis Community College will be calling to see CDF we just have so many people applying that that is something we have to look into expansion and I'm not hoping it will it will be this program for me is one that has to continue I think it's going to play a significant role as we move forward because for us again it's about you know getting artists the development and the nurturing of artists and then we are proud to have collaborated with the SFDF and this is our service coming to college in making this project move forward it's a beginning and there will be room for expansion like I said and like I said working is the Sa'afa-Lewis I know somewhere down the road they will come up with more ideas you know CDF we think you should this high think it can be more impactful SFDF I again understanding the returns on investment I think once this program shows its legitimacy within the sector I can see doing extremely well so I'm asking the artists to participate and I'm asking them to you know really take the opportunity to develop themselves in that regard as we close I really want to give the representative of the funding agency just just for her to to speak as we close to encourage artists and to speak to that contribution that is being made towards the development. Considering all what Mr. God has said I think he basically touched on every area however the BNTF as I said shares the same mandate as the SFDF and it's about reducing on inequalities our programs are gender sensitive but most importantly sustainability where BNTF is very big on sustainability we expect all our programs should be sustainable it's not a situation where and that's the other reason for the certification as Mr. God said where you just come you're not just going to be doing a course and then you know you walk out there is an investment there is no cost to the artist the Caribbean Development Bank through the basic needs trust fund is funding 95% of the project and the government of St. Lucia is funding 5% so and again as you can see here we're one we're not working in isolation of anyone we're partnering with CDF we're the implementing agencies but they're more or less facilitating the project with with Sa'afa and it is we're anything that is going to reduce on poverty reduce on inequality and our young persons can generate funds but or sustain maybe have more sustainable livelihoods we're we're always willing to fund and assist with that. Thank you so much for that so we are speaking to success to again the pillars of sustainability and we know of course that art is so innovators so final words I suspect I should let Mr. God go last so I will I will invite Miss Louie to give her final words as we close off. I just would like to take this opportunity to thank not just the CDF but all the the creative industry experts that we engage during this process we didn't just sit down and come up all this happened I can say I use my experience as a creative we met with lots of creatives in the field and asked for their opinions and there was this took a year of back and forth and interaction because we wanted to make sure Sa'afa always wants to make sure that whatever product they put out they really meet the needs of its clients and so thank you so much CDF for engaging in that process with us and we look forward to making our contribution to the development of the creative industries. Final words Mr. God for me again it's just this for me is ideally what CDF is about collaboration we don't know it all we're not our mandate is but we sometimes we need help in pushing the mandate forward and so the partnership that we see here today is what I look forward to moving forward in making sure that we develop and you know we stick to our mandate I want to thank this after Louis committee college they've done a tremendous job and it's been a long time a lot of emails and conversations and programming professionals deciding how things are moving but we knew that we had depended on the right institution for that because of the reputation in the the ability to in education I mean you look around St. Lucia and the A level students have done tremendous so for us that was an easy that was an easy go I'm from SSDF we are happy it's about equality for them and making sure that there's equal opportunity and I think that is what we're trying to strive for as a potential artist within sectors that they get equal opportunity so for us it was a wonderful experience again and I hope that we continue to partner in such a way because we believe collaboration just gives you so much more so I just wanted to thank you I hope the artist understand the opportunities that they're gonna they're gonna get from this and I hope they can take that opportunity and help other artists within the industry because one thing it's not about self yes you've developed yourself but at the end of the day it is to go out there now and to continue because that's how we're going to make this industry grow we have to understand that at this point in time in a budding industry we have to give so we've learned so may pass it on to my other pairs who may not have been able to get opportunity because limited space so I'm hoping that they take that into regard but again it's a wonderful project I'm proud to be a part of it I want to thank CDF staff they worked extremely hard on this as well and I hope to see the fruits of this project great great way to end thank you so much miss we missed a card miss Aleph joining us today the call is out to all artists to sign up for the business of the arts program due to start in August go to the website of the south of the Wisk community college www.salcc.edu.lc to register now get your certification thank you so much for joining us for the launch of the business of the arts program the panel the discussion an objective and impartial view of the issues of interest to you nation beat is on now