BRIDGETOWN–The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), got Create-ive when it launched its latest publication, aptly titled Create, a publication which applauds the successes of entrepreneurs in the Caribbean's creative industries. Appropriately, the launch occurred in synergy with the Calabash International Literary Festival launch at the Red Bones Blues Cafe, Jamaica, on March 20.
The creative industries continue to be recognised as significant contributors to growth and development in the world economy and can become pillars for economic diversification and catalysts for export growth in the Caribbean. The creative industries represent a dynamic sector that encompasses disciplines ranging from traditional arts and crafts to multimedia. The Create publication showcases only a microcosm, albeit impressive collection, of entrepreneurs from the music, film, fashion and creative design industries.
The agency's executive director, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, sets the tone for the publication at the event with an engaging and unconventional speech which spoke to the vision behind the publication and the impetus for the partnership between Caribbean export and Calabash.
Since 2001, the Calabash International Literary Festival has become the premier international literary festival in the English-speaking Caribbean that not only features writers from the Caribbean and around the world but also musicians, and provides a market for carefully selected artisans to sell their products to the large attending audience over the three days.
Caribbean Export has partnered with the organisers of Calabash to leverage this established platform of the arts for Cariforum artisans that are seeking to enter new markets and be part of a Design Caribbean stand at the festival.
Calabash provides an opportunity for regional artisans to network with international and Caribbean attendees who visit the festival in order to generate further interest in their products. Caribbean Export recognises that regional artisans are seeking new avenues and opportunities for market entry and penetration and it is therefore envisaged that Calabash will provide an outlet for the achievement of this goal which is scheduled to take place from May 30 to June 1 at Jakes in Treasure Beach, Jamaica.
As part of the launch event, patrons were entranced by the captivating rhythms of Xiomara Fortuna, a recording artist from the Dominican Republic who features in the Create publication. Fortuna's music is a unique fusion of various Caribbean indigenous forms which, in its essence, encapsulates the vision of a unified region which Caribbean Export upholds.
"We see our role, made possible by the tenth European Development Fund as giving structure and support through opportunities and exposure in publications like Create and at events such as Calabash, and for creative talent across the region to become strong exportable products for the rest of the world to embrace," Coke-Hamilton said.