Jan­ice Lear­mond-Criqui has been ap­point­ed Chair of the new Board of Di­rec­tors of Queen’s Hall. The an­nounce­ment was made on Wednes­day dur­ing the of­fi­cial pre­sen­ta­tion of In­stru­ments of Ap­point­ment at the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment’s Head Of­fice.

The new Board al­so in­cludes Deputy Chair­man Ny­di­ka Sylvester and mem­bers Nigel Gokool, Avis Bruce, Keenan Mon­ro, Isha Khan, Ali­cia Alexan­der, and Nigel C. Wat­son.

The cer­e­mo­ny was presided over by Michelle Ben­jamin, Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment. She was joined by Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary Dr. Narindra Roop­nar­ine and se­nior Min­istry of­fi­cials.

In her re­marks, Ben­jamin ac­knowl­edged the con­tri­bu­tion of Queen’s Hall to the cul­tur­al life of Trinidad and To­ba­go since its open­ing in 1959. She said the venue has long been recog­nised as a cen­tre for the per­form­ing arts and high­light­ed the man­date of the new Board to en­sure the Hall con­tin­ues to serve artistes, au­di­ences, and com­mu­ni­ties.

Queen’s Hall, op­er­at­ing un­der the Queen’s Hall Act, Chap. 40:50, is one of the coun­try’s pre­mier venues for cul­tur­al events. Over the years it has host­ed the­atre, mu­sic, dance, con­fer­ences, grad­u­a­tions, and na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions.

The new­ly ap­point­ed Board is tasked with safe­guard­ing the Hall as a pre­mier cul­tur­al venue and ex­er­cis­ing prop­er gov­er­nance and ac­count­abil­i­ty. Their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties al­so in­clude ex­pand­ing ac­cess and op­por­tu­ni­ties for artistes and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers while con­tribut­ing to the growth of the cre­ative econ­o­my.

The Min­istry out­lined sev­er­al ex­pec­ta­tions for the Board. These in­clude up­hold­ing trans­paren­cy and in­tegri­ty in op­er­a­tions, pro­vid­ing lead­er­ship to po­si­tion the Hall as a pre­ferred venue for cul­tur­al and com­mu­ni­ty events, and over­see­ing fa­cil­i­ty main­te­nance and mod­erni­sa­tion. The Board is al­so ex­pect­ed to strength­en part­ner­ships with the cre­ative sec­tor and pri­vate stake­hold­ers to ex­pand pro­gram­ming op­por­tu­ni­ties and pro­mote Queen’s Hall as a cen­tre of ex­cel­lence.

The Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment con­grat­u­lat­ed the new ap­pointees and ex­pressed its com­mit­ment to work­ing with them to pre­serve Queen’s Hall’s lega­cy, ex­pand its reach, and main­tain its role as a lead­ing cul­tur­al in­sti­tu­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go.