Dancer and VPAJ member Neila Ebanks is seen here in a dance position. Visual and Performing Arts Jamaica (VPAJ) was formed last year through the European Union and Private Sector Development Programme, as a lobby group for visual artists, film professionals, dancers, choreographers, dramatists, writers and publishers.

Bureaucrats wants more data to measure the Creative Industries, which is said can offset the decline in the goods producing sector.

Mistrust of government they added prevents the formation of policy for the creative industries which includes the arts.

“One of the things we need to get away from is the mistrust that exists many times between those of us that work in the government sector and those in the private cultural sector,” stated Sydney Bartley ,director of Culture in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports. “This does not augur well for anyone.”

Bartley was addressing the recently formed lobby group Visual and Performing Arts Jamaica (VPAJ) at the Jamaica Trade and Invest headquarters, Monday. He said that it hinders lobbying and “short-changes” the benefits to artists in the negotiation of international agreements.

Jamaica has an untapped competitive advantage in the arts, according to Reginald Budhan permanent secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

“I am concerned with this limited availability of data, secondary information sources are important but for proper planning and analysis we need to know where we are each step of the way,” Budhan told VPAJ. “We need constant mapping of creative industries in order to facilitate policymaking and so identify those creative branches that have potential for growth as well as quantify socio-economic growth.”

Other issues he wants addressed include the lack of capacity and limited access to capital.

“Creative industries are significant to Jamaica especially since the fallout in the goods producing sector,” Budhan said. “Over the years we have made a lot of progress in terms of our creative industries but still not where we ought to be with other countries.”

A recent World Intellectual Property Organisation study prepared by Vanus James stated that Jamaica’s copyright sector of which VPAJ activities form part, contributed $29 billion to the economy in 2005 or 4.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

VPAJ established in 2008 through the European Union and Private Sector Development Programme, is a group formed with visual artists, film professionals, dancers, choreographers, dramatists, writers and publishers. It currently has 300 members. Trevor Fearon who is the VPAJ facilitator said that the lobby group would in 2010 seek to develop networks with the Jamaican Diaspora to enable successful plays to transition to the overseas market. It also wants to utilise empty government buildings to house artists.

“As we have seen in a number of countries where you have creative incubators. This is a country where you have many unused government building. We can do something with them. We think there is a tremendous potential there to get artists in complementary areas to work in these facilities,” he said.