Tobago House of Assembly councillor Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus, Secretary of Community Development and Culture received a courtesy visit from Yvette Vaughan Jones of Visiting Arts, a cultural company based in the United Kingdom.
This visit which took place on Monday at the Secretary's Main Street Office, was used to discuss the ACP + Culture Programme which falls under the umbrella of the Europe-Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (EU-ACP) Support Programme To ACP Cultural Industries, a release from the THA said.
This vibrant group whose purpose is "to strengthen intercultural understanding through the arts" has embarked on a project called Culture Works Connect, which is geared towards "linking the creative businesses in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific."
The creative businesses in this regard refer to art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music and performing arts.
The duration of this project is 2014 -17 and is made up of four components which are:
1–Surveying and mapping the creative businesses
2–A training exercise which involves the appointment and training of a "link" person in each region to market the initiative
3–Scheduled workshops to build the skills of those within the creative sector
4–The opportunity for workshop participants to attend a networking event and one-week work placement in the UK.
Jones said: "I am very excited about working in Tobago, as the resources of the artistes are quite fantastic and we are going to make a really great project." She also gave meaning to the title of the project, stating that culture works and is connecting.
Secretary Tsoiafatt-Angus explained that Visiting Arts, "has offered the THA the opportunity to partner with them in having participants in the industry develop over a three-year period and in addition expose them to an international market."
She said it was a great opportunity and noted that T&T has already signed a country partnership and that she looks forward to further discussing Tobago's involvement. As is customary tokens were exchanged.
The partners involved in this programme are the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism–T&T, The Africa Centre–Cape Town, South Africa, The Pacific Arts and Culture Foundation–Suva, Fiji and Visiting Arts–London, UK.