MONTEGO BAY, St James — An initiative aimed at unearthing and exposing the hidden potential of primary school students residing in Montego Bay’s inner-city communities, through the visual and performing arts, is set to begin later this month.

Dubbed ‘Project Yourself’, details of the initiative, which is driven by a committee spearheaded by the acting director of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Western Jamaica Campus, Patrick Prendergast, and Joel Ryan of Sandals International, were outlined during a media briefing at the Montego Bay Cultural Centre last week.

“When we started discussing what we could be doing as a committee and we looked around, we noticed that basically we wanted to underscore the fact that young people who are engaged in structured and disciplined cultural arts programmes are more likely to develop better character and social skills than their peers who are not so guided,” Prendergast argued.

Some 80 students are expected to participate in the programme, which will begin in another three weeks and run throughout the summer holidays.

At the end of that period an assessment of the programme will be made before a full-fledged roll-out during the Christmas term school break.

Under the initiative, participants will be exposed to the skills and techniques of speech, poetry, public speaking, drama, basic playwriting and acting.

They will also benefit from dance — which includes traditional and popular contemporary forms — drawing, painting, mask making and photography.

Each participating student will be presented with a certificate at the end of the course.

“The programme is not just about exposing young people to these special skills and techniques in the creative arts, but the emphasis will be placed on the discipline that is involved in developing these creative arts skills and creative arts techniques,” Prendergast emphasised.

The Montego Bay Cultural Centre will be the home of the programme; however, students will also be taken to the UWI Western Campus, schools, and other selected places in Montego Bay in an effort to gain exposure and training.

Prendergast told the briefing that as the project evolves, secondary school students will also be included.

Meanwhile, former Member of Parliament for St James Central and managing editor of the Western Mirror, Lloyd B Smith, has expressed delight that the cultural centre will be utilised for the project.

He pointed out that during his time as MP he had always lobbied for the centre, which he considered then as a white elephant, to be fully utilised as a cultural centre.

And Smith, who is also a 2001 Actor Boy winner, disclosed that he would be lending his expertise to the initiative.

“I am pledging hours of voluntary service, because in another life long ago I was a teacher of speech and drama. I am more than happy now that I can give back something, especially to the youth in the downtown area of Montego Bay,” he remarked.