Festivals and the Creative Ecosystem

Last week, new data on the economic impact of the Arts was released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Endowment for the Arts. It was found that the Arts contributed more than $760 billion USD to the US economy (4.2% of GDP) and employed more than 4.9 million people across the US. The creative industries also exported more than it imported, creating a positive trade balance of $20 billion USD. It is worth noting that $31.6 billion USD was earned just from consumers attending arts events and festivals.

In Jamaica, there is no data on what we earn from our creative economy as a whole, or our arts events and festivals in particular, but there are some positive signals that show that our attitude to art, artisans, creativity and culture is shifting.

Last weekend was a prime example, when the Jamaica Rum Festival launched onto the festival circuit with a bang. Instead of being focused solely on the corporates – the producers and retailers of rum - the festival experience was centred around the work of artisans and creatives. The culinary arts, dance, music, products made by local creative entrepreneurs including fashion, jewellery, ceramics, and even furniture took centre stage.  Local makers like Charl B, I'd rather Fall in Chocolate, Street Food Saturdays, Andydra Concepts, Holistic Paradise, Laura Alexis Candles, Kabreco Designs, Kandes Delights and Exquisite Wicker were some of the highlights in the artisan village.

The inaugural Jamaica Rum Festival was a great platform for Jamaican musical talent in particular, featuring artistes like Sevana, Wayne Marshall, Aidonia, Ikaya, Sanchez and Jesse Royal. As senior strategist for the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright explained:

“We had a strong showing of the creative industries at the Rum Festival. This was deliberate, as Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has long mandated the inclusion of Jamaica’s creative entrepreneurs, leaders and emerging businesses in arts, crafts, gastronomy and other supply chain industries for our booming Tourism Sector. The Tourism Enhancement Fund, via the Linkages Networks has been at the epicentre of this effort and we are pleased at the very positive results. As tourism continues to boom, we will leave no stone unturned in ensuring the incorporation of Jamaican businesses - and more so those engaged at the creative industries level.”

Festivals and the Creative Ecosystem

There is a question that is asked repeatedly in Jamaica – “What do we need to do to leverage our raw creative talent?” Now, an “ecosystem” might sound like a complex answer, but it is simply those core factors that allow an industry to thrive, work together and act as a healthy system. In athletics for example, the ecosystem might include meets, funding, training facilities, sporting venues, coaches, regulatory bodies and commentators. 

A healthy creative ecosystem includes private and public funding, affordable workspaces, adequate retail & performance space, innovation, training and communication mechanisms. These are the elements that exist in other countries where the creative economy is one of the fastest growing sectors and where creatives themselves are thriving. With gaps in the creative ecosystem, Jamaica will have challenges reaping the benefit of our natural talent in music, literature, dance or any creative arena.

Festivals are a critical component of the creative ecosystem, as they provide a way to connect audiences with the artists and allow creatives to easily monetise through ticket and product sales. This is one area of the creative ecosystem where we have many skilled practitioners, some of whom were recently trained at the International Festivals Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

The Case for Investment

Edinburgh is a true festival mecca – a small city in Scotland that hosts a month-long festival in August that boasts 317 venues, 55,000 performances, 3,548 shows with 55 countries represented. It attracts over 2.8 million paying attendees (there are free shows too) and contributes over ￡313 million to the Scottish economy. Again, this is just one single element of the creative ecosystem and the Edinburgh example should demonstrate the potential that exists for an island that has both a powerful culture and year-round sunshine.

When asked to comment on the creative ecosystem, the Coordinator of UWI’s new Bachelor in Cultural and Creative Industries, Dr. Deborah Hickling Gordon stated,

“There are many excellent cultural and creative programmes being implemented in Jamaica at the moment. There is no doubt that there is a new cultural and creative buzz and reinvigorated energy in the cultural economy which I have identified as the possible makings of a creative renaissance. Optimal growth can only take place if all of the parts of the ecosystem are nurtured.”

At a glance, there are about 100 festivals on the Jamaican calendar, but aside from the household names like Calabash, Sumfest, Rebel Salute and Dream Weekend, the scene is mainly comprised of small players. There are many festival organisers who face scalability, succession and sustainability issues; competing with each other for the same small pool of funders, popping up with a great event one year and struggling to produce the event the next.

The goal would be for Jamaica to develop into a “Festival Island”, where people immediately associate Brand Jamaica with a diverse, consistent, year-round offering of quality cultural experiences, produced with professionalism - and with a few operating at the scale of an Art Basel, Glastonbury or even the Edinburgh Festival. The strategy of spotting talent, training, investing in and nurturing our smaller festivals would bring major benefits to our economy.

Kim-Marie Spence, co-author of Global Creative Economy and Research Fellow in Creative & Digital Industries, Southampton Solent University commented,

“Jamaica has been prolific in its creativity - however for Jamaica to reap more from this creativity, we need to be at the centre of the business surrounding what we have created. There needs to be an ecosystem that encourages creativity to grow right here in Jamaica, beyond production - the value-added segments and elements of the industry need to live here as well. That requires an investment structure and willingness to support even the riskier sides of the industry, such as music which we have actually proven to be good at.  Likewise, we need to support expertise - business and research - around these industries.  Talent is just the start. We need to know how to negotiate talent into superstardom.” 

In short, for us to leverage the raw creative talent that exists in Jamaica, we need to start to pay attention to our creative ecosystem. We need to view creativity, the arts, culture, events and festivals as the world sees them – as a way to tackle societal problems like crime & violence, as lucrative investment opportunities, as a means to increase employment and as critical drivers of economic growth.

Andrea Dempster-Chung | Executive Director, Kingston Creative  

Andrea is the cofounder of Kingston Creative, a nonprofit organisation that is transforming Downtown Kingston through Art and Culture. She is a structural engineer, strategic business coach and has held senior management roles in the GOJ, Digicel and Gracekennedy. She is the founder of Bookophilia, a bookstore that promotes Caribbean literature and the Arts. She has served on the boards of Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), The National Land Agency (NLA), the Public Health Committee and is a Mentor for Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship-Caribbean.  She also headed the Arts portfolio for the British Council where she developed strategy and implemented key projects in film, literature and visual art, in order to drive the creative economy in Jamaica. 

Please send comments on this article to [email protected]