Vice-Chancellor's Report to University Council 2018/2019

Vice-Chancellor’s Report

NEW FACULTY OF CULTURE, CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS COMING

The region’s cultural landscape will soon receive a significant uplift when The UWI at Cave Hill launches a new Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts. It will be The UWI’s ninth faculty – the seventh at Cave Hill – and is expected to open up a world of opportunities for aspiring cultural artists and performing arts practitioners and facilitate in-depth study of the Caribbean’s much celebrated culture. The Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts will begin operations from August 1, 2020 and will offer multidisciplinary and cross-faculty teachings. The creative economy which is global in scope and presents an opportunity for the Caribbean to formalise its vast available resources in culture, creative imagination, and the creative sector. In that regard, The UWI has a pivotal role to transition creative and cultural practitioners from a local or seasonal space, to being major players on the international stage, with a local commercial presence anchored within the region. The new Faculty will be driven by a focus on deepening critical studies of Caribbean culture and identity as well as global economic imperatives that centre the creative industry within the academy. It will, therefore, empower graduates to generate personal and national wealth, local intellectual property rights, new employment opportunities, jobs and businesses regionally. It also opens a new conversation regarding the Caribbean as an owner and rights holder rather than a participant in the global creative economy that today accounts for US $2.225 billion or 3% of the world’s GDP.

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