The decision of the Jamaican Government to become a part of the creative cities network, which later led to the designation of Kingston as a creative city of music by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN), was expected to give a necessary boast to the Jamaican music industry, specifically towards an urban sustainable development agenda over four years.

According to the United Nations, there is a growing recognition that the creative sector has the power to transform, not only as a cultural staple but also as an economic driver. Across the world, cities are recognising the advantages of leveraging the cultural and creative industries to accelerate economic growth.

In 2018, I travelled with Freddie McGregor to another creative city of music — Bogota, Columbia — as part of a music city partnership and cooperation objective. I was completely blown away by the vibrancy of Bogota, teeming with life through an integrated arts market. The city was not without the usual traffic and congestion, but I forgot all that as we walked the music street filled with shops selling musical instruments, streets blocked off from vehicular traffic allowing for a major marketplace of the arts – literature, dance, visual arts, crafts, and authentic food.

Bogota is a global, diverse, inclusive and creative city that acknowledges citizens as the centre of its transformation processes. In past decades the city went through an urban, economic, social, and cultural recovery supported by public policies that include culture as a main pillar. Music was part of this process through the ‘Festivales Al Parque’ city programme started in 1995, which contributed to recovering the citizens’ appropriation of public spaces, reinforced identity and diversity, gathering more than 600,000 participants every year.

Cultural industries in the city improved with the participation of the private sector through the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, which has developed markets and fairs for creative sectors: books, arts, performing arts, audiovisual, and in particular the BoMM — Bogota Music Market — a business platform for local and regional agents created in 2012 along with Bogota’s inclusion in the UNESCO Network. The chamber also developed the City of Music Cluster in 2015 for strengthening the city’s dynamic music sector.

The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The 116 cities, which currently make up this network, work together towards one common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.

What is a Creative City of music

A ‘Creative City of Music’, by its simplest definition, is a place with a vibrant music economy. According to the UNESCO Creative Economy Report 2013, “the creative economy has become a powerful transformative force in the world today. It is one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the world economy not just in terms of income generation but also for job creation and export earnings. Unlocking the potential of the creative economy therefore involves promoting the overall creativity of societies, affirming the distinctive identity of the places where it flourishes and clusters, improving the quality of life where it exists, enhancing local image and prestige and strengthening the resources imagining diverse new futures.

By joining the UNESCO Network, Jamaica committed to:

Use the creativity of its people specifically in music, as a driver for sustainable urban development. In particular, the city is focused on using music and the arts to redevelop and revitalise Kingston’s innercity communities often referred to as downtown Kingston. This will be achieved through conversion of derelict buildings for use as creative incubators and performance venues to promote appreciation for creativity and provide outlets for creative expression; foster cultural exchanges and interaction by and among Kingston and other network members through participation in programmes and initiatives that impact the creative sectors; develop and support pilot projects that have as their focus community building through the arts; facilitate policy and programmatic convergence with the National Development Plan, National Cultural Policy, Cultural and Creative Industries Policy to achieve network missions and objectives.

Leveraging the Creative City of Music Status – Rebranding Kingston

Place branding is a growing concept in the marketing world with branding techniques applied to the development of cities and countries. The marketing of a place is inherently anchored in its people, history, and culture and a clear strategy for “projecting images and managing perceptions”. The creative city status puts Kingston on a path to grow its economy through tourism and investments with the marketing of our authentic cultural assets. The Kingston experience ranges from sophisticated nightlife and dining to street dances and hillside clubbing to conferences and small festivals attracting a small tourist audience.

The Paint Jamaica project has taken on a new life with Kingston Creative’s mural projects mirrored by corporate and government entities partnering with various embassies has the trappings of a vibrant music city on the surface. Kingston music scene was rocking with nightly dances, weekly live shows and the greatest music school in the English-speaking Caribbean supplying the music industry with the highest quality players of instruments. Even during a pandemic, Kingston has somehow managed to remain alive with music but somehow, we are yet to tap into its full potential as a music city. We boast music attractions like the Bob Marley Museum, Trench Town Culture Yard, and Tuff Gong Studios but why haven’t we included other notable music studios around town for a full music city tour? Why haven’t we expanded the space at the School of Music, Edna Manley College for the training of more musicians? Why haven’t we improved our policies to make them more friendly for the music industry to thrive? Shouldn’t we be capitalising on this network for sustainable urban development?

Wake the town and tell the people – Kingston is a creative city of music

Much has been accomplished at the level of the ministry of culture but has the music industry fully capitalised on the power of a creative city?

How do we harness the power of the people to broaden Kingston’s appeal and reposition its brand in the international marketplace as a tourism capital?

I believe it is time that we engage the fragmented stakeholder network towards the development of a comprehensive music city plan for Kingston.

— Consider seriously at minimum two mega events per year to attract tourists to Kingston

— Partner with the local community to put more “heads to beds” expanding the room capacity in Kingston for these mega events

— Expand the music tours to include significant studios across the city like Harry Js, Studio One, Penthouse and Anchor Studios to name a few.

— Facilitate music exchange programmes with institutions in the network with Alpha Music School and The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

— Support the live music scene with funding for participating musicians

— Develop an artist ambassador programme using artistes with international appeal

— Expand the Jamaica Music Museum model to include multimedia towards the creation of a mega music museum for reggae

— Create music performance spaces

Employing city-marketing and place-branding strategies to harness the power of the city of music status for Kingston requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, using the creative imagination of our people to (re)present the image of this paradox of worlds — culturally vibrant and bursting with life. Kingston has the buzz factor — the birthplace of the greatest music on earth, reggae. let music lead us towards a flourishing local creative economy.

Coleen Douglas is an arts marketing professional with over twenty years of combined experience in marketing communications and media affairs. She served the board of the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association for nine years, and continues to contribute to the development of music in Jamaica as the director of marketing and communications at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. She is also the omega marketing chair for the Association of Rastafari Creatives (ARC) and a member of the communications team for the International Coalition of Concerned Rastafari.