BY HORACE HINES

Observer West reporter

RIO BUENO, Trelawny — World-acclaimed artist Joe James is saddened over what he describes as the Jamaica Tourist Board’s failure to include visual arts in its promotion of destination Jamaica.

“The Tourist Board needs to start to put that (visual arts) in their promotion so that people outside (of Jamaica) know that Jamaica has a lot of good artists,” the veteran practitioner of the fine arts proclaimed.

“This is something that the Tourist Board need to introduce in their marketing abroad. The galleries and so on,” he told Observer West.

His position was echoed by Patricia Lewis and her husband, Elgo, two Montego Bay-based artists who are also of international repute.

“Whether it’s JTB, the cultural department or whoever it is, or private entity, what we are trying to get across is that it is essential to increase the coverage and the support of art,” Lewis said.

“We have been looking support from any entity. Right now we are trying to get a museum in Montego Bay where we can show art to locals and tourists. And students can come and see art any day of the week. When you don’t have that it is very difficult to support it,” he said.

James, who was speaking to the Jamaica Observer West from his Rio Bueno art gallery in Trelawny, reflected that there is an international demand for artistic creations – which he claims are readily available in Jamaica. Sales, James noted, will bring in well needed foreign exchange.

“The artists create work here and whatever money is made from the sale of the art remains here in Jamaica. We don’t have to export art here in Jamaica to sell. We have volumes of people coming in. Collectors, various new breed of people who want genuine Jamaican art. That is something really we need to popularise and the JTB is the only entity that can do this,” James said.

James, who established his art gallery 47 years ago recalled that in the late 1960s and 1970s “there was a strong input by the tourist board pushing Jamaican art and it did well.”

“There were people like Barry Watson, Carl Abrahams, myself, Ken Spencer, Edna Manley, a whole host of artists were around then. And it popularised Jamaica a lot. And this is what we want to see happen again,” he said.

“How can a travelling person know anything about the culture of a country if they don’t visit the artists, the theatres and so on? These are areas that we need to promote more,” James said.