The Grenada Office of Creative Affairs (GOCA) is continuing its engagements with cultural and creative industries (CCIs) practitioners through the 200 Creative Voices initiative, an integral component of the recently launched National Cultural and Creative Industries Strategy Project.
The National Cultural and Creative Industries Strategy Project, led by GOCA in collaboration with Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC), will establish a comprehensive strategic plan and policy framework for Grenada’s creative sector. To ensure diverse representation in the perspectives that will ultimately shape the CCI strategic plan, GOCA and TFCC adopted a multi-dimensional approach to data discovery and stakeholder engagement. The 200 Creative Voices initiative, a follow up to TFCC’s initial visit in early October, aims to directly engage at least 200 cultural and creative practitioners through interviews and focus groups to explore perceptions of Grenada as a creative nation, identify business development needs and ambitions, and co-design essential policy priorities.
Andrea Dempster-Chung, CCI expert, member of the Global Creative Economy Council and TFCC’s Caribbean Associate, spearheaded the most recent 200 Creative Voices engagements. GOCA and TFCC staged three (3) focus groups, aptly named collaboration labs, with CCI practitioners from various sectors. The sessions were held at Kirani James Athletic Stadium in St. George, Belmont Estate in St. Patrick and Mermaid Hotel in Carriacou. Mrs. Dempster-Chung also facilitated a roundtable discussion at Six Senses La Sagesse.
“Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique are islands with an amazing wealth of talent, and it was great to be able to lead a series of interactive workshops with local artists and creative practitioners,” explained Mrs. Dempster-Chung. “We saw high levels of alignment on the vision for the creative sector, and this bodes well for the development of a strategy that leads to the right investment, partnerships and infrastructure to grow the creative economy.”
Karl Benjamin, a musician and cultural practitioner, described his experience participating in the Carriacou collaboration lab. “I am certainly pleased to have experienced the discourse and the presentations. It is often said that Carriacou and Petite Martinique is the cradle of culture within the tri-island state, because of how deeply rooted we are in our cultural traditions. Coming out of this session, we are now seeing ways and means of developing ourselves and the cultural and creative space where we can harness and structure the practices so that we are able to protect and preserve our varying artforms and provide a source of livelihood for practitioners in the field. Hearing from the consultants about the opportunities and possibilities was timely for us coming out of Hurricane Beryl, where so many of our talented folks lost sources of income, lost possessions, and even lost the zeal to practice their varying talents and creative ideas. So, the session put things back into perspective and was a motivating factor for us.”
According to 2023 data from UNESCO, cultural and creative industries contribute 3.1% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), representing annual global revenues of almost US$2.3 trillion. By 2030, the creative economy is projected to contribute 10% of global GDP. Against this backdrop, participants in the collaboration labs and roundtable discussion were asked to think beyond the current state of Grenada’s CCIs and envision the country’s future with a thriving creative economy.
For Mr. Benjamin, this means moving past the cradle. “We want to protect our rights, products and cultural art forms and creative ideas, and use these practices to move the cradle to a space where we would no longer refer to it as a cradle. We know who the occupants of cradles and we don’t want to remain occupants of cradles forever.”
The National Cultural and Creative Industries Strategy Project is a key part of GOCA’s mandate to develop policy to create a favourable environment for the development of the nation’s cultural and creative industries. The two-phase strategy project joins other initiatives launched by GOCA including the Cultural and Creative Industries Business Development Fund and specialized courses offered at T.A. Marryshow Community College.
