The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission is currently hosting a series of free online workshops for the Phase 1 subject areas of National Festival of the Performing Arts and Arts Development competitions, ahead of the 2021 competition cycle.
The workshops, which cover all four Phase 1 subject areas of Dance, Drama, Music and Culinary Arts are being hosted live via Zoom and on the JCDC’s Youtube and Facebook pages, in keeping with the national social distancing protocols due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
“The need for continued social distancing caused by this pandemic has made it especially challenging for the creative community, particularly those in the performing arts to maintain and express their craft. As such, the JCDC has once again risen to the challenge of carrying out our mandate of unearthing, developing and showcasing the cultural talents of our people by staging a special, pandemic-friendly, virtual version of our competitions for the 2021 cycle,” Said Mrs. Marjorie Leyden-Kirton, Acting Executive Director at the JCDC.
“Participants for this upcoming Competition cycle will be required to upload a video entry to our specially-designed online platform for private adjudication. Also, we will only be accepting solo performance entries this year, as a means of limiting exposure for our participants and in keeping with social distancing protocols. Participants will also not be required to pay any ‘entry Fee’ to our competitions this year,” Mrs. Leyden-Kirton continued.
Mrs. Leyden-Kirton further explained that there are eight subject areas for the 2021 Arts Development cycle and that these areas have been divided into two separate phases for roll out.
“The Phase 1 subject areas are Dance, Drama, Music and Culinary Arts, while the Phase 2 subject areas are Speech, Literary Arts, Visual Arts and the Tradition Folk Forms,” Mrs. Leyden-Kirton further noted that the Traditional Folk forms programme will not be hosting a competition this year, but instead will focus on training and demonstrations for participants, due to the nature of the subject area, which has a heavy focus on group participation.
Mr. Andrew Brodber, Director of Arts Development and Training at the JCDC said that persons who are looking to participate in the upcoming competitions would especially benefit from participating in the on-going workshops, as in addition to general training in the respective subject area, the workshops would also give special focus to this year’s special COVID-friendly entry process.
“It is customary to host workshops to train and guide our participants ahead of the opening of entries for our various competitions; and though we face new challenges caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, this year is no different. Our participants can look forward to the impactful training sessions led by industry experts that the JCDC is known for, as well a breakdown of the new entry process and competition regulations for this upcoming cycle,” Mr. Brodber said.
The free online workshops may be viewed on the JCDC’s Facebook page: Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, or on the JCDC’s Youtube page: JCDC Jamaica.
