EXECUTIVE Director of the National Gallery Dr Jonathan Greenland feels Jamaica is doing a poor job of preserving its legacies and wants the Government, private sector, corporate industries and other non-governmental organisations to do something about it.

As a first step, Greenland said there is a need for heightened awareness on the part of all stakeholders as to the importance of preserving buildings and collections that form part of the country’s cultural heritage.

According to Greenland, “conservation does not have a strong profile in Jamaica even though the cultural heritage is in danger of being lost”.

The executive director said while the issue of a national cultural heritage needed to be kept on the forefront of people’s minds, it “can be hard to get authorities to think proactively and address the issue before disaster strikes, particularly in a country with such agonizing humanitarian needs and a significant lack of resources”.

“Many of the neighbour-hoods in our immediate vicinity lack the most basic of facilities, and face the worst of Jamaica’s crime and violence. In this situation, culture can be perceived as something of a luxury or irrelevance; yet it is the steady erosion of culture that cripples society that causes many chronic problems. The general lack of awareness and respect concerning buildings, collect-ions and institutions in the downtown area is just one symptom of a wider problem,” Greenland remarked.

“There is much left to be done on the part of the Jamaican government, the private sector, colleagues in the corporate industries and NGOs…in terms of conser-vation it is usually cheaper and more sensible to address smaller problems, before a major development problem strikes”, he noted.

The National Gallery director’s comments came during the handing over of a US$24,800 (J$1.6 million) cheque to the National Gallery, under the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, by United States Ambassador to Jamaica Ambassador Brenda LaGrange Johnson in downtown Kingston on Wednesday.

In her comments, the US Ambassador said preser-vation of the works at the gallery, which is the largest in the English-speaking Caribbean, was a matter of “constant concern”.

“We at the Embassy are extremely pleased that the National Gallery has been selected as a recipient under the 2006 Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. This grant…will assist the National Gallery to maintain its collection in proper condition, and so preserve Jamaica’s artistic and cultural heritage,” she said.

Meanwhile, Wayne Modest, director, Museums History and Ethnography at the Institute of Jamaica, told the Observer that the grant would facilitate assistance from experts from the United States to restore some of the works at the gallery that have deteriorated over the years because of several factors. Modest said supplies to be utilised in the process were expected in the island by the end of next month, and the conservators by the end of the year.

Over the past six years, the fund has awarded 379 preservation grants in 108 countries.

This year’s award is the third that the US Embassy has facilitated for Jamaica. In 2001 Liberty Hall received a grant to preserve archival material on Marcus Garvey, and in 2004 another grant was given to the Institute of Jamaica for the preservation of artefacts of Jamaican history.