The Callaloo Company’s Todd Gulick calls for respect for the integrity of art

In 1990, Minshall was invited by French composer and spectacle-maker Jean-Michel Jarre to participate in Jarre’s citywide concert, “Paris – La Defense, une ville en concert.” Here, Minshall’s Mrs. Merry Monarch

Any number of things go into culture, said Todd Gulick at the start of his presentation “We Small but we Tallawah: The Business of Making Art in T&T”. For us in Trinidad and Tobago, he believes, it is anything from “doubles in Curepe” to “overtaking on the shoulder.” And art, for him, is a subset of culture, something that is “newly made and original” . . . a communication between an artist and his community, in which the artist distills and articulates the culture-”tells us our own stories, and also entertains and amuses.” It can also be a means to make a living, sustain a whole community, be of benefit to the economy and even earn foreign exchange.
But in order to make art that travels and is thus a viable business, Gulick said, it must not be watered down for the benefit of another audience. “For it to have integrity we have to do it for us, not them, for the art and not for the money.” Only then, he said will it be of interest to those outside. “Set out to make art for yourself, with integrity: then you can invite others and they will be fascinated.”
Gulick is well qualified to talk on this topic, as manager of the Callaloo Company, founded by artist and designer Peter Minshall, which produced many awe-inspiring carnival presentations. Many consider one of the brilliant aspects of Minshall’s mas’ is the way he transforms local cultural forms while staying true to the tradition and spirit of those forms. But it was when Minshall was selected to design components of the opening ceremonies for the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic-huge international spectacles that brought Trinidad’s carnival to a world-wide audience-that people really begun to realize what it is when creativity, culture and technical expertise come together.
In order to create a “differentiating” product, however, it’s not enough to have talent. Gulick asserts that we need a “culture of creativity” that nurtures artists of all kinds. He points to a disconnection between the narrow definition of art in this country (“painting images on two-dimensional surfaces, framing them and then hanging them on walls in galleries”), and the outlook of the international art scene, which allows for far more unconventional interpretations. This has led to a state in which art has become “bifurcated”-with conventional artists painting tropical fruits and landscapes on the one hand and, on the other, the work that many young people create on computers or other platforms not being regarded as ‘art’. There has to be, said Gulick, a way to create more integration between the two streams. He found theatre, dance and classical music to be in a similar state of unreadiness for the big stage. Carnival, meanwhile, has become a “profiling enterprise”, a fete on the road, he said, hugely successful and enjoyable to those who participate, but not for those who are watching.

The Opening Ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games: The segment Call to Nations, designed by Minshall

But how to get better? Production values are key, said Gulick, as is excellent technical support for shows, but above all, an industry has to be created. “Art is not only about artists”, but should be a professional occupation that employs the many people who can support the artists–including owners of galleries, curators, agents and publicists-and it requires organization and training. He pointed out that “people do these jobs here but are not respected as professionals. We do not train people in these fields. We need more people who love the arts but are not artists themselves.”
Most of all, though, Gulick said confidence in our culture is what will carry us forward. “How do we address the need to understand and love ourselves and especially that we are a small place?” One of the challenges of a small place, said Gulick, is that we are “not big enough to generate our own critical standards.” In a bigger country, he said, there is so much competition, and this makes everyone strive to be the best they can. These are some of the issues that make it challenging to leap onto the world stage. “We are an island but cannot remain and island.”
Carnival is one of the ways this country has brought together many of the strands that connect art and community in a highly effective way. “Synthesis happens” in carnival, said Gulick: there is culture, art, sculpture, performance in the street, or “performance art”. Where there is the elite art and the popular art in the metropolitan art scene, here carnival bridges the gulf between them. “You don’t have to choose one. There is an understanding of high art, but it’s accessible to all.”
Gulick said the Ministry of Tourism has a lead role to play in cultural development, but that government should never attempt to direct art or what kind of art should be made. “The best, most promising talents-give them money, develop a cadre of supporters and stand back and let it happen.”

Robert Bryan’s presentation looked at the upcoming ICC Twenty20 tournament and the development of international sporting events in the Caribbean

A Trinidad and Tobago flag, right, is seen in the crowd as fans take part in a Mexican wave during the Cricket World Cup Super 8s match between England and West Indies at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, in 2007. —Photos: AP

Cricket lovers remember well the disappointments of the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean, and particularly the lack of local participation and Caribbean flavour. Jamaica’s Robert Bryan, director of the ICC Twenty20 tournament to be held in the Caribbean next year, outlined some of the lessons learned from that experience and looked at the emerging opportunities for developing successful international sporting events in our region.
In his conference presentation entitled “Pièce de Resistance: Cricket, Glorious Cricket”, Bryan commented that big events brought many elements together, and that there’s a learning curve to getting them right. “We are beginning to understand that an event is not just putting together a particular performance . . . It’s also about pulling together a multiplicity of platforms to stimulate and creative economic activity.”
One lesson well learned was that while an international event must have rules and recognised standards, it must not alienate locals. The 2007 Cricket World Cup, he said, lost local interest because of the perception that it was “not for us, but for an external market.”
Caribbean governments and organizers have also gained experience in understanding the scope and content of agreements for international events and, and of negotiating to support the region’s interests. “There is a value chain to an event and we have learned that gate receipts are not the only revenue,” said Bryan. The 100 percent gate receipts agreed to by Caribbean governments for the 2007 ICC World Cup tournament turned out not to have been the good deal they may have thought, he said, as it was probably the “smallest revenue stream” to be gained from that event. It also led to high ticket prices that were prohibitive to many locals. Instead, local organizers have recognized that broadcast and commercial rights are where the money is, and that Caribbean culture is also a huge selling point. It was not only West Indian cricket fans who were upset that so little was done in 2007 to make locals feel at home: visitors who regularly travel here for cricket also missed the lively atmosphere that’s usually guaranteed at West Indian cricket grounds.

England

Things will be different during the 2010 ICC Twenty20, said Bryan, with a more equitable piece of the pie in the deal for Caribbean countries as we become more adept in hosting these types of “Sportainment” events. Bryan said features of the tournament include 41 matches over just 17 days (two per day, with a one-hour break in between); affordable tickets; re-entry allowed to grounds; and “sensible” security measures in place. The whole idea is to have fun, he said, to relax and enjoy the games. “And yes, you’ll be able to bring your horns, your conch shells and your whistles.”
However, Bryan also says the biggest challenge to organizing large inter-regional events is the fact that several territories are involved. “We are tested to the limit”, he said, in being able to work together. “There are nine countries and the challenges of transportation, immigration, security and cooperating in marketing are tremendous.”
To go forward from here, he said, the Caribbean must look to finding ways to build culture into our events-not a small feat given our resources (or lack of them). In order to do so, Bryan believes that we have to create a stimulus for development that must be driven on “impeccable commercial grounds” and, very importantly, ensure we retain control over commercial rights.
He gave an example of how the Caribbean can build on its phenomenal success in athletics to create events designed to attract world attention, create brand value and be attractive enough for the television audience. Our athletes perform brilliantly all over the world, he said, and so let’s use that to draw people here. The single fact that Caribbean countries together took home the highest number of medals at the recent World Championships in Berlin is reason enough to make athletes from all over the world interested in the region. Again, said Bryan, it comes down to the talent of Caribbean people and to our culture. “We need to pull together what we are and what is real and create serious events. We are accustomed to watching our athletes in Europe; they can be the drivers for similar kinds of events in this region,” said Bryan. “We’ll be getting into something that international athletes would want to come to-and then we can begin to recognize the value of those television rights.”

In celebration of World Tourism Day, the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the Chaguaramas Development Authority and other key stakeholders held a one-day conference on “Creativity and Culture Partnering with Tourism” at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre on Tuesday, August 29.
This year’s theme for World Tourism Day was “Tourism: Celebrating Diversity”, and the conference aimed to shed light on the most human side of the industry—its capacity to build understanding, foster social inclusion, and promote higher standards of living.
As Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean confront the challenges of the global economic crisis, the Ministry of Tourism is mindful of the role of the sector in diversifying the local economy through the expansion of opportunities for employment and investment, exploitation of our cultural brands internationally and promotion of social inclusion, especially among our youth.
A number of leading experts explored the important linkages between the cultural industries and tourism sector. Speakers included Keith Khan, Head of Culture, London Olympics 2012; Robert Bryan, Tournament Director, ICC Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, 2010; and Hon. Rene Baptiste, Minister of Culture, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In this Trinidad and Tobago Review Focus Report, we look at the highlights of the presentations made at the conference.

Tourism Minister Hon Joseph Ross

An opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean to engage in a new conversation about how culture and creativity can enhance the tourism product in the Caribbean. This was how cultural industries consultant Josanne Leonard, co-ordinator, described the aim of a one-day conference on “Creativity and Culture Partnering with Tourism,” held at the Chaguamas Convention Centre on Tuesday, August 29.
In welcoming remarks at the start of the conference, Ms Leonard said the conference was inspired by “all the great and ordinary creative people of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.”
The hope was, she added, that the conference participants could transform “this country and this region with the resources, creative and otherwise, that we possess in such great abundance.” The purpose of the conference was to “open the discussion on the concept of cultural tourism.” She said that it was useful listening to Minister Ross at an official reception on Monday evening at the Trinidad Hilton at which he outlined some of the Ministry’s investment in human resource training, development and upgrade of the national physical tourism plant and the branding and promotions efforts being made in external and regional markets. She pointed out, however, that these are tough and uncertain times. “Bananas gone, sugar gone, oil and gas will certainly sputter away eventually,” she said. One only has to look at the trading power of countries like China, India and other emerging nations like Brazil, she said, to realise the kind of competition this country and region is up against. “Surely we must be asking ourselves—what’s next?” According to Leonard, “Well, the school of thought I come from—and I have been doing this for a long, long time—tells me that there is only one thing left for us in the cupboard—our creativity.” Ms Leonard said that though local and regional culture was the “Cinderella” of regional development agendas, if properely developed and marketed, it could have a significant impact on attracting tourists to the region.
Ms Leonard said the conference was designed to initiate “a thought-provoking conversation” inspired by the people and “the beautiful landscape of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean,” and should seek to open the discussion on the concept of cultural tourism. “We have to push that envelope a bit,” she said, and begin to explore what is cultural tourism. Citing UNESCO’s definition in 2006, she said “creative or cultural tourism is travel directed towards an engaged and authentic experience, with participative learning in the arts, heritage, or special character of a place. It provides a connection with those who reside in the place and create the living culture.”
Noting that there was “opportunity in crisis,” Ms Leonard said this is a moment when “we have to move beyond our comfort zones,” and promote an active engagement between artists and the creative community, government, schools and the general population. “We have to redefine cultural tourism,” she said, while looking at culture as a catalyst and “wrapping innovative development and business strategies around it.”
The conference, according to Leonard, would be looking a number of themes including how to “think local and act global.” She explained that presentations would focus on “making our towns and districts spaces for cultural encounters,” the use of digital technology, including social media platforms for “empowering ourselves while reaching global audiences.” She said it was also about looking at “community-based tourism where the things that our people do quite naturally can be supported and enhanced and shared with us and with others who come to our destination.” It would be about “celebrating who we are” and “being serious about defining our cultural condition.” The conference, she said, which commemorated World Tourism Day, should look at new markets, south-to-south relations and put new emphasis on our cultural legacy.
Following Ms Leonard’s opening remarks, Tourism Minister Joseph Ross formally declared the conference open and said he welcomed the opportunity to strengthen the connection between the arts and tourism.
He said there was “an excellent lineup of expert facilitators” whose purpose was “to strengthen the dialogue and linkages between tourism and the local arts.” He noted that on August 27, in commemorating World Tourism Day, he welcomed the theme “Tourism, Celebrating Diversity,” and felt it was quite apt for Trinidad and Tobago.
This country, he said, “offers a range of cultural experiences for the international and domestic visitor,” and was virtually regarded as “the cultural capital of the Caribbean,” and as “the Land of Festivals,” with carnival, steelband, calypso, soca, rapso and chutney which make up “an extremely rich heritage.” The conference would take “a look at the experience of our local artists” and their involvement in “the energy, enthusiasm and creativity of our people.” Often, he said, it was the cultural experience and community interactions that remained an indelible memory for the visitor and which was widely promoted by word-of-mouth.
“It is obvious,” he added, “that we should seek to build bridges between the creative arts and tourism.” There was need to make art and and local expertise had an advantage that would serve to encourage tourists to visit the country again and again.
The government, he said, placed great importance on the tourism sector and would like to see that sector increasingly sustain itself “through these difficult times.” He said the government recently approved a national tourism policy for Trinidad and Tobago, in which cultural activity was a key component.
The next step would be the implementation, which would involve partnering with the stakeholders to map out specific targets.
He said the concept of cultural diversity was “an excellent one” and there was now need to identify an agreed apparatus “to make Trinidad and Tobago a major tourism cultural destination.” They key question was: “What makes our tourism industry unique?”
And how can “creative industries and tourism come together” and “interact with one another.” This conference, he said, was the start of a new conversation on this critical subject and he looked forward to reviewing the results of the work done at the conference “so that together we can move the agenda forward.”

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Minister of Culture outlines her country’s remarkable plan for developing tourism

Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc Board members Rejil Solis, president; Marcia Gomez, vice president, and Jose Francisco Avila, right, executive director St Vincent and the SVG Minister of Culture Rene Baptiste, second right, at the Vincy Homecoming 2009 launch.

In a packed day of thought-provoking and outstanding presentations on the development of cultural tourism, one person stood out. Apart from giving an insight into the challenges of tourism development in St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Minister of Culture of that collection of tiny islands and cays produced a forthright, clear-headed and highly intelligent plan that left the audience in awe. Indeed, the Honourable Rene Baptiste drew heartfelt praise and the only standing ovation of the day for her imaginative lesson on the theme of “Festivals, Brands and Sustainable Tourism”.
As a nation that has traditionally depended on agriculture and tourism for most of its income, SVG, like many of the OECS, has found itself facing the collapse of the banana industry and has been forced to look at new ways of making what’s available-and what’s sustainable-work for its development. The Minister noted that the theme of this year’s World Tourism Day— “Celebrating Diversity”—fits neatly into the model her country is building, which relies heavily on its cultural heritage to take it into the future. “Sometimes,”she said, “we don’t see what we have.” She went on to outline that in cultural terms, what SVG has are its people: originating from Africa, Asia and Europe, they have created a rich Caribbean culture, and are the country’s most valuable resource.
The Minister said a report conducted in 2003-2004 showed, among other things, that there were branding issues in getting SVG’s tourism product sold abroad (in both the region as well as North America and Europe). “What could we sell?”they asked themselves, “Everyone has white-sand beaches, what do we have that’s unique?”In order to find out, they had to wade through another type of culture-one of “distrust, mistrust and hostility”-in order to develop a coherent policy and get the general public’s participation and approval. The Minister admitted that one of the most difficult barriers to this was the public sector, which she called an “army of occupation”. A government is in office for five years at a time, she said, but the public sector is “there for a lifetime.” However, it is clear Ms Baptiste is not one to be cowed by any such obstacles, and she spearheaded a series of cultural seminars throughout the country. “Let the people tell me; let the people guide me”was her slogan.
The main findings from these meetings were that people wanted more training in their various cultural endeavours, and that artists wanted to be included in overseas tourism delegations. This led both to the involvement of steelbands, soca artist Kevin Lyttle and calypsonian Princess Monique in promoting SVG, and also to a great effort to develop the cultural capital of the country by focusing on training for young people. Ms Baptiste said the Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, sought scholarships from “everyone he knew” in dance, music and visual arts, including scholarships to Cuba and Venezuela. “We have to pick and choose our friends,” she said, for anyone who may have missed the significance of doing business with two of the region’s socialist countries.
The participation of these newly trained young people was guaranteed by another part of the plan—to create festivals, one a month, and to enhance existing festivals. St Vincent already had many annual events, including Basil’s Jazz Festival in Mustique, Union Island’s African drum festival, their summer carnival (branded as “Vincy Mas”), and the Nine Mornings Christmas celebrations. They created several more, including a performing arts event that gets huge participation from young people, and a gospel festival which has grown steadily since its birth in 2003. Nine Mornings is one of the traditional events that have benefited from a policy to invigorate existing festivals—Ms Baptiste commented that the “carnival arts have been brought into Christmas to enhance it as an event” by creating performances on the theme of the Christmas story.
She also spoke of the ways in which all aspects of the festivals are linked to ensure better exposure of SVG. The Internet is important to promotion (whether via the Ministry of Tourism’s website, YouTube or other forms of digital promotion), as is actively seeking press coverage for events. For example, she said that the Ministry invited US cable channel A&E to film Vincy Mas and so take it to a greater audience; similarly, when a cache of 2,000-year-old Amerindian bones was discovered, the History Channel and National Geographic were invited to document the find, with the proviso, says Ms Baptiste, “that they must train some of our people.” The government also sent young people to study in art- and museum-rich Mexico, so that when the restoration of an old colonial building is complete and a museum created to house these important artefacts, local people will have the skills to preserve and manage the collection and run the museum. Of course this is also going to be of interest to people who come to SVG to pursue more traditional forms of tourism such as yachting regattas, golf, hiking or festivals, so it all ties together.
The plan is, therefore, to “create a cadre of cultural practitioners” and give the support to nourish them so that the cultural value continues to grow.
It’s also important, says the Minister of Culture, to promote investment in SVG and to seek a variety of forms of funding. They are using funds from a European Union grant, which she said wryly, is “backpay”to fund some of their projects, as it is important that development occurs in a strategic and holistic way, and adds some aspects that are more visitor-friendly. The world famous St Vincent Botanical Gardens, for example, would benefit from professional guided tours and an interpretation centre and this, she said, has been planned.
Another crucial factor is sustainability, said Ms Baptiste. “We are a small country and there is already evidence of climate change…We also need to protect our marshes, protect our forests. Do we let foreign investment build their villas on the top of the hill?” She suggests there are other ways, including one that is close to her heart, and it comes back to culture. One of the most interesting cultural cross-fertilizations, said Ms Baptiste, has been the re-connection with the Garifuna people, now spread along coastal areas of Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua, to their former homeland in St Vincent (“Yurumein” to them). At the end of the so-called Carib Wars in the 18th century, the British government exiled their forebears to the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras, but now, through the revival of this connection, Garifuna people from Central America and even in the US have made what Baptiste describes as spiritual and emotional journeys to their motherland. This, too, is tourism. And there is more, including the preservation of SVG’s architectural gems, such as Kingstown’s splendid cathedrals; the continued development of community tourism; the manufacture of natural local products for the growing spa market and traditional herbal remedies.
There is “no banana industry again,” said Minister Rene Baptiste, “but because of that we have stopped spraying insecticides in those areas, and the butterflies have returned.” This seems a good way to sum up what the Minister presented as the way forward for St Vincent and the Grenadines tourism.

Head of Culture for London’s 2012 Olympics, Keith Khan, talks about creating big events using cultural diversity to thrill and unite people and ideas

Millennium Dome, Central Show, 2000. Photo: Gideon Mendel. Below, storyboard sketch by Keith Khan.

In a powerful keynote presentation Keith Khan, a London-based artist of Trinidadian parentage, outlined a number of cultural projects he has been working on, including presentations for the upcoming London Olympics in 2012.
Khan made skilful use of video presentations to highlight various aspects of his work and illustrate the main aim of his talk: to show how cultural product could be highlighted and used to attract increasingly large audiences. He pointed out that London won its bid for the 2012 Olympics because of the strength of its cultural presentations.
His work has been as eclectic and diverse as the audiences that have viewed his productions. Khan said he spent 10 years creating costumes for Notting Hill carnival and sporting events before moving on to the production of even larger events and ceremonies. In 2000, he was part of the creative team that produced the Millennium Dome’s central opening shows. He described the effort as “a big government project” in which he worked with musician Peter Gabriel and Mark Fisher, who’s best known for his incredible set designs for U2 concerts. He described how the first thing that people saw, “just after the Dome opened after midnight” was carnival. The show, he said, was “like an aerial ballet” and it was played before 10,000 people in the first two days. It ran every day, three times a day, over 306 days of the year and employed 14 carnival bands.

Ndebele artist draws/paints a London phone box in her style

Khan has also been artistic director for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee—Commonwealth—and the director of design for the Commonwealth Games ceremonies in Manchester, England, both held in 2002.
In 2004 he was selected as Chief Executive of Rich Mix, a £28-million international, cultural and heritage centre which opened its doors in the East End of London in 2006. Rich Mix offers a diverse programme of theatre, music, dance and other artistic forms, as well three cinemas. The centre, he said, is an open space employing musical and digital images to attract young people.
Khan was also co-founder of Motiroti which produced projects like Alladeen, a cross-media performance collaboration about outsourcing in India that played internationally from 2003 to 2006, and earned the company a New York OBIE award. The production employed many Indian nationals, who normally worked in call centres for North American companies. The outsourcing industry, he explained, trained these workers “to pretend to be North American,” but that many people the world over have a great fascination for the workings of call centres, and that accounted in part for the success of the production. Alladeen was co-produced between London, New York and Bangalore, India. It also became a musical which toured for three years and produced a pop music video.
As Head of Culture, Khan has also “shaped all the cultural performances” for the 2012 Olympiad taking place in London, during which all major cultural institutions—libraries, museums, art galleries—will be open to the general public for free. That, he added, will help bring in large audiences.
He has also helped to shape some 10 cultural programmes for the World Shakespeare Festival, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). It was very important, Khan said, to ensure that young audiences would be attracted to programmes like these because they are not interested in Shakespeare; the programme, he said, will include versions that would appeal to young people, including “hip-hop Shakespeare”.
Inspired by the energy of popular culture, his most recent projects have engaged with communities and technology, and are frequently either epic or personal in scale, and ideally involve mass participation and a high degree of interactivity.
Khan is currently Chief Creative Director for D Lime, an organisation focused on high quality cultural products and exchanges with a particular focus on the promotion of brands from his ancestral Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.
On “diversity”, he says it’s “a three-dimensional form, not linear. We live in complex and layered times and it is surely one of the most live issues in our society. Liberated from narrow political terms, it becomes a pre-condition for innovation and creative values.”
He said in his presentation at the conference that he had had to work with “political, bureaucratic, social and cultural” forces during his entire career, but believed that his Trinidadian heritage had helped him to “navigate some very, very complex territory.”
He has used the Muslim Hosay festival and Trinidad mas’ camps in one of his cultural presentations and believes that young people should be encouraged to get involved in the arts, and that there should be real support for cultural forms. He said recent surveys in the UK had shown that the young were “bored” with traditional theatre. “But they love Carnivals,” and this is a good way to get them interested and involved. For the 2012 Olympics he is working on “a rich complex of artistic expressions” where the emphasis will be on cultural diversity. He said he was especially trying to make the Olympic Games “relevant to young people.”
He is currently working on a show scheduled for 2012 in which he hopes to employ “a range of cultural inputs from the Caribbean,” and develop musical talent from this region. The project will also feature a steelband exchange involving high-level professional orchestras in the UK. He said, however, that he didn’t see “one Caribbean cultural product” in London that could qualify for international standards, and much work still needs to be done. “You have got to pull it together for a London focus,” he said, adding that 2012 was a real opportunity to showcase Caribbean talent, including athletes with Caribbean heritage.
Khan said that there is no doubt that this region has a very dynamic cultural product “but there’s a lot of work to be done” to improve “the Caribbean image,” and in order to earn rewards, “you have to invest in culture.”

Two young entrepreneurs, Atiba Phillips and Miles Abraham, consider the potential value of new media for tourism development

Atiba Phillips

How computerisation and digital technology can be used to enhance the tourism product was the theme of the presentation by Atiba Phillips, CEO of INFOCOMM Ltd, at the Ministry of Tourism’s seminar on August 29.
Entitled “Doing Business In The Cloud”, Phillips’s presentation dealt with the next generation of media and opportunities in digital, interactive advertising and the Internet.
Pointing to new developments in technology, Phillips noted that many tourist destination bookings are now being made on-line and that people now saw the computer “not as a box, but a door” through which they could access all kinds of information.
“Cloud computing,” he said, was a model of computing in which “dynamically saleable and often visualised resources are produced as a service,” on the Internet.
He said it provided users with knowledge, expertise and control over the technology “in the cloud that supports him” (or her).
Among some other salient points made by Phillips:
• The cost of paper, ink and packaging is increasing;
• The cost of computer power, telecommunications and bandwidth is decreasing
• Newspapers in Europe and elsewhere are going out of business because people are increasingly going online for news, and have now become used to getting information from video clips and social networking sites.
He said the Internet today was virtually functioning as a travel agent plus serving as a mobile shopping guide, and strongly recommended that tourist boards and service companies make use of websites to advertise their products.

Miles Abraham

Phillips was followed by Miles Abraham, another young businessman who spoke on the next generation of media and the need to understand digital technology.
Abraham noted, for example, that it had taken 38 years for radio to reach an audience of 50 million people. It had taken the Internet just four years to achieve that target audience. Facebook, on the other hand, had taken just four hours to achieve that. And in the Caribbean diaspora today there are more than one million users of that technology. He compared advertising costs for the Press and the Internet, pointing out that the Internet was much cheaper.
Stressing on the importance of digital technology, Abraham gave examples of good and bad digital experiences, including websites not being available when attempts were made to access them, or loading too slowly and frustrating potential customers.

Maison de Bois, Guadeloupe; architect: Christian Galpin

Architect Mark Raymond presented a warmly received paper on how our architecture can be employed to support tourism. Architecture, he said is “a valid but underutilised form of cultural production. We traditionally tend to identify culture with performance, music and dance and not with architecture.”
Yet, Raymond said, “an experience of cities like Havana, Paris and New York is significantly informed by architecture.” Raymond said architecture and tourism in the Caribbean “is conventionally expressed through what might be called scenographic representation, creating photogenic backdrops to ‘exotic’ tropical experiences.” But such architecture “bears little relationship to authentic Caribbean experience. It is a fabrication, a fantasy.”
He said contemporary cultural development “is framed by a model of sustainability which is a concept triangulated by economic goals, ecological goals and socio-economic goals. Architecture, culture and tourism are all currently influenced by, and subject to, this framework.”
Raymond said history was “an important component of culture,” and we tended “to focus on the Victorian character of Port of Spain and the ‘gingerbread’ house as being definitive and archetypical.” But he noted that there were “excellent examples of contemporary architectural trajectories and narrations with which history provides us yet propose new and innovative ways of inhabiting space.”
In “developing an understanding between architecture and tourism that goes beyond the scenographic backdrop, we need to understand the context in which the architecture is required to operate. This requires an understanding of the economic, ecological and socio-cultural contexts from the point of view of design.”
Raymond then showed visual images of tourism master plans in the Dominican Republic produced by Caribbean architect Marcos Barinas Uribe, indicating sites and strategies for locations in the Dominican Republic. He said these plans, undertaken in consultation with various stakeholders, “show us how and where interventions can take place that enhance an understanding of occupation and the landscape in support of futuristic objectives but sensitive to economic, ecological and socio-cultural objectives.”
Images of King’s Wharf in San Fernando were also displayed as an example of “a public space which could successfully operate as part of a tourism strategy which also benefits civic life.”
Raymond also pointed out that there were several other examples in Trinidad where original architectural buildings were being left to rot.

Parque de Los Niños, Puerto Rico; architect: Andrés Mignucci

Following on Raymond’s presentation, and maintaining the same theme of “Going Global, Staying Local”, artist/designer and university lecturer, Eddie Bowen, told the story of his personal experience with art and design in this country and his collaboration with fellow artist Steve Ouditt on Crossover Design company that lead to the beginning of a “regional conversation” about art. “We felt we needed to bridge the gap with the art world and there has been some success at this over the years.” Bowen said he believed the stakeholders in our culture are still being left out and that bright people needed to put pressure so that others will start finding out “what is our culture.”

Presentations from Jamaica’s Clyde McKenzie and Trinidad and Tobago’s Warren Solomon focused on festival tourism and getting the most value from our rich culture

Cultural confidence

Conference co-ordinator, Josanne Leonard shares a moment with presenters Richard Bryan and Clyde McKenzie

Clyde McKenzie, founding general manager of Irie FM in Jamaica and former chairman of the Entertainment Advisory Board (later Cultural Industries Council), focused his talk on what he called “cultural confidence” and the benefits that can be derived if the Caribbean comes together, with the cultural industries at the centre of regional development.
He praised Tourism Minister Joseph Ross’ recognition of Trinidad and Tobago’s diversity as crucial to the country’s development goals, saying that the country’s rich heritage is reflective of great diversity and is fascinating for others to experience.
McKenzie also warned against some mistakes that are typically made by countries in their efforts at development, and which affect the way in which their tourism product is marketed: “There is a position that’s gaining dominance that development is best reflected by the amount of concrete we pour into our soil,” McKenzie said, adding that some have the notion that in order to attract people from the US or UK we have to mimic those places, even architecturally. “There is much to be gained from preserving and restoring what we have built here. Our Caribbean aesthetic is valuable. We don’t need to be creating replicas of Manhattan or London here.”
He is advocating not selling “empty shells” and a clichéd “reductionist” idea of the Caribbean, and instead learning to value what we possess naturally. He said one only has to look at the new music forms that have come from the Caribbean (the last musical form that came from Europe, he said, is the waltz, “and that was over 100 years ago”), the wealth of athletic and intellectual power from such a small place, to realize the importance of “affirming the cultural confidence that has made people from this region go so far.” He called our people a sustainable resource, because “though some have gone they have left their legacy” to the benefit of all.
The region’s history of cultural collision has made us “the first globalists”, and that, McKenzie believes, gives us the ability to negotiate the new economic realities. One of the ways to capitalize on this is to use our communities—African, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, European—as “beachheads to get into the places we came from.”
Equally important is getting the region to co-operate in our development. It’s “not in our DNA to think regionally, but there are significant benefits that come from working together.” This, he said, would include not only making use of new digital technology but also in figuring out ways of engaging traditional media to stimulate region-wide cooperation in tourism. As an example, McKenzie said that a festival in Jamaica “could be supported by way of equity by tourism authorities in other territories.”
In terms of festival tourism, he also said it is one thing to host and promote music festivals, but even though they attract visitors, he wondered to what degree the Caribbean is optimizing the essential value added? “Have we talked about broadcast rights and other ways we can extract value from events?” The answer, he said, is “No.” He also believes that focus on visitor arrivals may be somewhat misguided and unsustainable. “There is a limit to how many people our islands can take; there is a point where that stops.” Instead, we should find ways to extract more from our cultural festivals. Above all, McKenzie said, we must have confidence in our culture and people: “There is no value in showing visitors a poor imitation of themselves. What we have to show them is the real McCoy—what we have here . . . We should be the people who we are. Once we understand this, everything will fall into place.”
Festivals in Tobago
Warren Solomon, newly appointed Director of Tourism of the Tobago House of Assembly, emphasized the importance of “collaboration and strategic direction” in determining how to take the island’s tourism product forward. Without a cohesive strategic plan, he said, the island’s rich offerings would be cancelled out and lost.
Solomon spoke about some of Tobago’s new annual events, including the Plymouth Jazz Festival that was cancelled this year. “This was considered to be the nail in the coffin for low-season tourism,” he said, but the THA and the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association came together and the “Tobago Jazz Experience” was born.
Solomon said that to ensure the survival of festivals, governments have to identify and support those that attract the most people. “We have well established, mature cultural events that need to be taken to another level. We have largely voluntary, untrained staff at events and ad hoc event research for individual events . . . What we need is to standardize systems for gathering information so that today’s mistakes do not become the norm.”
In order to help festivals become more viable, Solomon said systems need to become more customer-friendly, and part of that will involve training for all those involved, including promoters. “Customers are very important, and they need to know well in advance who’s performing; promoters have to be able to give statistics and information in support of their shows.”

Jamaica’s Deborah Hickling on the links that can be made through trade, tourism and cultural exchange to promote inter-regional growth and development

The fact that Ghana is the focus country for World Tourism Day 2009 put Deborah Hickling in a unique position to give seminar participants a glimpse at what can be derived from contact with the ancestral home of so many of the Caribbean’s people. Ms Hickling is a Jamaican radio and television producer who has been deeply involved in cultural exchanges between the Caribbean and Ghana (and more recently Nigeria), and she is particularly interested in the convergence of tourism, trade and cultural exchange as a way to promote inter-regional growth and development.

Street festival in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Screen grab from Ghana Tourism’s website: www.touringghana.com

There are vast opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration between the Caribbean and Africa (as well as Asia, and Latin America), Ms Hickling said, because of our history; and in the other direction there is a great interest and curiosity about the Caribbean from Africans. Among the ideas for stimulating thistwo-way cultural trade are tours that bring together creative industries and tourism; and cultural tourism that celebrates the phenomenal achievements of our peoples. One feature of particular resonance would be Ghana’s coastal slave forts, (one of which—Cape Coast Castle—was visited by US President Barack Obama and his family last July) that marked the point of no return for the Africans sold into slavery. There’s much more, too, including music production facilities and fabric markets and factories that could be useful for carnival; mentioning that Rita Marley has built a home and studio in Ghana, Ms Hickling also said that there was an opportunity to document “the return of Africa’s children to the soil.

One of Ghana’s coastal forts, used during the slave trade

She also gave the example of Samini, one of Ghana’s most prolific and popular recording artists (and winner of international music awards) and his interaction with Jamaica. A singer of “urban” Ghanaian music called “hiplife” and “raglife”, Samini wanted to enrich his sound and when asked what he needed to do, “all he wanted was to come to Jamaica.” He travelled to the island, met and recorded with musicians, spent some time getting to know the country, and visited places important to him, including the Bob Marley Museum. “That,” said Ms Hickling, “is tourism.” Samini came to Jamaica, she said, for “validation” and it led to much more, including recording a single with Jamaican reggae singer Stevie Face which became popular in Ghana. “The single picked up traction in Ghana where people love Samini, and so that also benefited Stevie Face.”
There are countless ways these relationships can be used to develop understanding and promote prosperity through South-South partnerships, said Ms Hickling, but things have to be done in a more structured way. “Musicians have been touring for many years but we have not taken it seriously. How many people? Where are they recording? What can we do to encourage more people to come here to record? We know where we have to put up a pier for yachts but where can we put up a recording studio?”
Taking into account historical links, Ghanaian enthusiasm for the Caribbean and the fact that both countries have oil, Trinidad and Tobago has many connections with Ghana, and is equally well placed to participate in this cultural trade (and Samini wants to make the trip here, too). The current technical collaboration that sees T&T’s energy experts taking their services to Ghana can be expanded, Ms Hickling said. “That’s an ‘in’ to a population of 22 million people and an opportunity for the Ministry of Tourism to liaise with the Energy Ministry and organize a tour. From there, involve the media, television producers, both here and there.”
The focus is usually on collaboration with Europe and the US, but according to Ms Hickling, this has to be expanded, and it is time Caribbean countries understand the value of cultivating traditional links and making new ones. It would be well to think, she said, about Ujamaa, Julius Nyerere’s concept of familyhood and co-operative economics, where “we share and we all benefit.”