BETTER management of the country's performance spaces will allow artistes to better earn a living, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell told the Senate on Tuesday.
He was piloting the National Academy for the Performing Arts Bill 2022, after which senators debated and also passed the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts Bill 2022.
The first bill establishes NAPA as a legal body under a board of 5-11 qualified individuals to be named by the minister who alone will give the board special or general directions.
Mitchell said the bill will allow better management of the NAPA facility to serve culture and the arts and to remedy managerial woes which have plagued the NAPA facility.
He said the economy needs to be diversified away from the traditional mainstay of the energy sector into the "orange economy", namely the creative sector,
Saying TT was a cultural powerhouse in the region and the world, Mitchell said culture drives tourism, all with economic benefits.
"We have given our culture to the world. Many countries and cities across the world not only continue to enjoy and fall in love with our culture and cultural expression and products but they also utilise our cultural expression and products to realise real economic benefits.
"Yet we continue to miss the opportunity to truly maximise our culture and entertainment economically, while at the same time continuing to advance the development of our orange economy." Mitchell said apart from energy, TT's other advantage was its culture, as "its unique selling proposition."
He said as small as TT was, it had many culture aspects such as the steel band, calypso, rapso, Tobago speech band, soca, chutney, spoken word, dance and theatre.
"With these incredibly valuable intangible assets, we must continue to move away from the energy sector and realise fully the economic potential of our entertainment and cultural sector.
"We must treat creative works and expression as productive and valuable endeavours."
Expanding on this sentiment, Mitchell linked Vision 2030's call for TT to have less reliance on the energy sector to the goal behind the NAPA bill.
"More effective management and operations of NAPA and SAPA will contribute to fulfilling the national vision's statement by enabling members of the creative sector to feel valued and attain their fullest potential supported by efficient management of these performance spaces, providing a facilitative environment for fostering diversity and creativity.
"In other words, changing the management structure improves the ease of doing business which lays the foundation for creatives to create in a space that allows their work to flourish comfortably."
He said a new management structure at NAPA and SAPA will "promote decent work and economic growth through diversification and innovation; promote job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation; and devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products."
Mitch
