Imagine an entertainment venue where you can experience the fullness of Jamaican culture all in one space, encapsulating music, art, food, drink. That’s the vision local photographer and artist Craig Phang Sang has for Kingston. The creative entrepreneur plans to bring his vision to life in a new multi-purpose entertainment space called Di Lot located at 33 Constant Spring Road in Kingston. He told the Jamaica Observer that he and his team built out the plan over the p ast seven months.

“Di Lot is an outdoor entertainment centre encapsulating art, food, drink and entertainment curated to provide an extraordinary outdoor experience and commercially zoned for future growth. The property is deliberately themed and executed as rustic-chic and environmentally conscious, open to develop a new way of daytime and nightlife activity,” said Phang Sang.

He said the venue, which is located in the mid-town vicinity of Kingston, is expected to “build and extend on all the efforts made by Kingston Creative, Paint Jamaica and all the other mural and artistic projects that have preceded my efforts.”

Phang Sang explained that Di Lot will provide a space for local artists to showcase and monetise their work. He noted that different works will be featured around the property in various ways.

“It won’t be just my art, although most of my art will be inside the actual gallery and inner borders. So, I’m gonna invite any and every single type of artist to be on the outside, to be in the murals, to be doing guest shows, and we want to populate a calendar 365 days a year. So it could be music, dance, philosophy, poetry, book reading, paint-and-sip,” he continued.

The entrepreneur said he’s already started to receive expressions of interest in terms of partnership for this initiative. “We have quite a few bronze sponsors and four gold sponsors that are preparing all of their offerings to come in here, which is going to help quite a bit. [Entertainment and Culture Minister [Olivia] “Babsy” Grange and I met and spoke on it and she loves the project, and I have also had dialogue with the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) which supports the murals and street art concept downtown and they have been cooperating with our efforts.”

Phang Sang said he plans to have a soft opening in September of this year and continue to build out.

“People saying why not wait until you’re finished. the truth is because it’s so artsy I want people to be invested in it. I want them to come and see us and all the muralists and all the artists actually paint and draw and put up their stuff and become a part of the family,” he explained.