FOR this article’s purpose, I would like to venture into the existing realities.
Today, much is said about the island being a melting pot for culture, diverse creativity and notable artiste. Most of that is true, but the survival of the artiste and the various art forms has been a constant battle to retain, sustain and become relevant in today’s society.
We know the greatness of many notable visual and performing artistes. Topping that list would be persons like Derek Walcott and his brother Roddy, not extracting the paintings of Derek’s son Peter, Dunstan St. Omer and his brilliant sons Alwyn and Luigi and daugters Sofia and Digna, Vincent and Jalim Eudovic – another father and son combination.
There’s also the quiet painter ‘Yankee’ and his son Cedric George, musician Charles Cadet and his saxophonist niece Barbara, Kenneth Lawrence alias ‘Scotty’ and his daughter Solange, violinist Rameau Poleon, pan (steel band) pioneer ‘Scrub’ and his sons and daughters – and family – and ‘Shining’ Emmanuel and sons.
Carlos Mendes and other geniuses like ‘Myers’, ‘Jiggs’, ‘Toto’, ‘Piper’ amount to more than ten band-masters coming out of the St. Lucia Police Band Boys (as they were commonly known because no women played music back then…)
And we cannot forget the likes of Hunter Francois and again his sons Luther, Ricardo, Rossini, or the works of Kendel and Hogarth Hippolyte, ‘Fish’ Alphonse, Hayden Forde, Robert Lee, MacDonald Dixon and others, keeping theatre alive, including the late Stanley French and Athanatious Laborde.
Great dancers such as Sixtus Charles and ‘Ikael’ Francis, Culture Queens Eliza Mazwell in Goodlands and Sessene Descartes, other artiste such as Frank Norville, not forgetting mass men like Danny Marshall, Cuthbert Anthony, Antonius ‘Secra’ Gibson, Miss Euralis Bouty, Boo and Chester Hinkson, Joyce Auguste, Tony Ishmael and Adrian Augier – and many more, too numerous to remember and mention, hundreds more renowned and extremely-talented persons.
But behind all these names and talents one thing is sure: they have all had to evolve and develop, their art and crafts, on their own with little or no help from the state, also to obtain an audience, get selected to exhibit elsewhere, or gain the necessary payments for their life-long works of art.
Considering that with all our theatre history only one fully-equipped facility exists, bringing me back to the sixties, not being able to take your performance on the road, or out of the city, just because there were not and we still do not have any established performance places outside the city that’s ideal for presenting such shows.
That meant that the cost of presenting a show outside the city outlets were (and still is) prohibitive because nothing exists and the cost is astronomical. Dancers today, to get trained, have to go to top-cost classes because, again, the rental cost of rehearsal venues is top-dollars and it has not been considered as an art subject in schools, where the tutors are paid and not students or parents having to pay class dues, as is done today.
Again, it’s the Music School an some local schools that offer some training and learning support to children artistically-inclined to do music, or you must learn on your own, because the state does not provide community space or creative personnel to teach for free, or as a social need.
People like fashion designers have no place to showcase their talents or their worth. Still no national art galleries, no home-established festivals or competitions except calypso — in its season.
At the thousands of restaurants throughout the state, there’s no live performers apart from the occasional karaoke session. Hotels only hire the lowest-bidders, who also to wait for two months to get paid.
So, I have said all that to make the point that the state piggybacks on the works of the artiste, while offering little or no help to make them grow or attain world status. I have heard of the sporting community boasting about having hundreds of playing fields and courts, but most are for leisure. But art is serious business and the proceeds of your workmanship must be compensated and appreciated.
So, before taking all the credits, some top-hatters should examine their track-records as it relates to artistic development, then wheel-and-comeback again!