ONE of the first events attended by Lisa Hanna, newly appointed minister of youth and culture, was last Sunday’s opening of Barrington: A Retrospective at the National Gallery of Jamaica.

Notwithstanding the fact that the retrospective is the second (after Fireworks on the Waterfront) event on the cultural calendar which celebrates Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of Independence, it is an excellent sign that the minister would spend her Sunday afternoon taking in works of art by master painter, Professor The Honourable Barrington Watson, OJ.

Please allow me a shameless and giant plug here for the National Gallery of Jamaica. The show is a tour de force. More than 250 paintings, drawings and original prints by Barrington — one of the most influential artistic figures in post-Independence Jamaica — are on view at the National Gallery with smaller annex exhibitions at the Bank of Jamaica and the Olympia International Art Centre.

It continues through April of this year and is a must-see for everyone and anyone interested in art and in the magnificent contribution that Barrington Watson has made to the elevation and promotion of this country’s culture and to the role of the professional artist.

So while we would like to claim that she was duly inspired by the retrospective and by its record audience, the considered impact of culture on society is not new territory for Ms Hanna, for as shadow minister of youth and culture she acknowledged early that for Jamaica, as one of the top 15 brands in the world, “culture is one area that we already have the global advantage. We can gain so much by producing cultural products in the visual arts, music, food, and our identity as a people, by turning it into content delivered to the world in real time, using the proper support structures and technologies which will ultimately create job opportunities for our young people”.

With her prior exposure and preparation we are pleased that the minister has hit the ground running, for upon the assignment of her portfolio as minister of culture she announced her intention that: “There is definitely going to be an economic thrust to ensure that the outputs of culture have more of an impact on the quality of people’s lives, in addition to building their talent…” and “…as we seek to aggressively market our culture internationally, we must move to strengthen our agencies for increased productivity and efficiency.”

We are delighted that she will not seek to reinvent the wheel but has instead referenced the 58-page National Cultural Policy of Jamaica Towards Jamaica the Cultural Superstate document tabled in 2003 (after nearly two decades of combined research and consultation; see www.nlj.gov.jm/files/u8/national-cultural-policy.pdf) by the Culture Division in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture.

The document suggests that it is the fragmentation of responsibility for culture which has prevented us from claiming the social benefits and economic wealth which could be derived from the right and proper management of the global impact of Jamaica’s unique culture.

Case in point: currently, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission, the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and the Institute of Jamaica are based in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport; Jampro’s film and entertainment commission is based in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce; the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office is also based in the Ministry of Industry; the Government’s Entertainment Unit is based in the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport; and the Creative Production and Training Centre, Jamaica Information Service, and the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica fall under the minister with responsibility for information and telecommunications.

“When we have responsibility for all aspects of culture under one ministry,” Hanna said just last year, “we will be in a better position to see how much investment is needed for the synergies that can be best formed within our cultural industries”.

At this point we would like to disabuse the notion that Hanna was given a ‘soft’ ministry. After decades of long research and consultation, the people, the players and the powers that be know what we’re capable of and what’s required to benefit from an industry — incorporating music, food, fashion, fine arts, film, and publishing — which is estimated to account for more than seven per cent of the world’s GDP.

In 2001, the fine arts generated more than US$23 billion in sales globally. In 2010, art sales grew by approximately 27 per cent, with global transactions reaching US$57 billion. There’s nothing “soft” about that.

The creative industries have been seen to become increasingly important to economic well-being, with proponents suggesting that “human creativity is the ultimate economic resource”. The Jamaican music industry alone earned an estimated US$255 million in 2004, and the film industry earned more than $1 billion in 2006.

Unfortunately, there are no such statistics for the visual arts industry — yet — which is a clear indication that there is much room for growth.

The time has come.

scowicomm@gmail.com