JAMAICAN photographer Shanti Persaud has been awarded one of five Royal Overseas League (ROSL) Artist Travel Scholarships.

She was selected from a field of more than 200 international entries.

A statement from ROSL said all five scholarship winners will be offered two all-expenses paid trips to the United Kingdom, and in September will spend one month at the Patrick Alan Fraser Foundation at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland.

In addition, the ROSL will provide up to seven days’ accommodation and hospitality at its clubhouses in London and Edinburgh, plus a cash award of £500 to cover personal expenses in the UK. All five winners will be invited to return to the UK in July 2005 for a group exhibition at a central London gallery.

Persaud is the fifth Jamaican artist to receive an ROSL scholarship. Others include Ebony Patterson (who was the ROSL Arts Scholar for 2002), Dorothy Monteith, Cheryl Phillips and Lorraine Morgan.

Persaud, who was born in Manchester in 1974, gained a BSc in Geology from the University of the West Indies and completed an MSc in Environmental Planning and Management from the University of Chile.

Since 2002, Persaud has worked as an environmental officer for the Jamaica Bauxite Institute. She is a founding member of ‘Just Black and White’, a fine arts photography club comprised mostly of past students of the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (photography department).

She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Photography Festival, the Photographic Club of Jamaica (annual print exhibitions), the Gleaner Exposed series, and the Grosvenor Galleries.

Founded in 1910 to encourage international friendship and understanding among people from the Commonwealth, the ROSL is a non-governmental organisation with an international membership of more than 22,000. Superbly located clubhouses in London and Edinburgh provide members with accommodation, hospitality and facilities for entertaining. The ROSL also has a network of reciprocal clubs and member groups in over 52 countries around the world.

Since 1984, the ROSL annual Open Exhibition has provided an international showcase for young artists from Commonwealth and former Commonwealth countries to exhibit in the UK for the first time.

During the past 17 years, the ROSL has exhibited works by artists from Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cyprus, Ghana, Grenada, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Malta, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, the UK and the Republic of Ireland.