NON-PROFIT arts organisation Kingston Creative has suggested that while Jamaica’s capital city has the potential to benefit greatly from its cultural and creative assets, its ability to seriously do so continues to be affected by gaps in industry data.

Speaking at a Jamaica Observer Business Forum last week, the entity’s co-founder and Executive Director Andrea Dempster Chung said that while a number of mapping and other exercises are currently being undertaken to measure the true worth of the cultural and creative output locally, there is great need to quickly quantify earnings to arrive at a ballpark figure.

“What we are trying to get to is that number… as a non-government organisation we can’t lobby for investment unless we can tell investors what a product is worth. They often do not want to invest unless we can tell them what the rate on investment will be, and for these reasons we are calling on Government, through the different ministries and state agencies such as the Statistical Institute of Jamaica [Statin], to help us get to that number quickly,” Dempster Chung said.

“This number has to come from Government. It cannot be an estimate from any one entity,” she argued, noting that while some steps have been taken over the last two years, data for the industry as a whole largely remain under-reported.

However, Dempster Chung, in light of what she believes to be the multimillion-dollar earning potential for the industry and its players, used the opportunity to again call for the speedy development and roll-out of a cultural and creative industry policy which, she believes, will better help to, above other things, inform and guide the sector, address its high level of informality, and somewhat quantify its value.

Globally the cultural and creative industries, which are said to be valued at approximately US$2.3 trillion on average, contribute about 10 per cent of gross domestic product to economies. The industry, made up of a number of traditional and new areas, is now said to also account for more than 30 million jobs worldwide.

Kingston Creative, now in its seventh year of existence, said it has been actively working to push culture as a driver of socio-economic development, and this it has been doing through a number of projects and programmes created to spawn a web of commerce in the busy downtown district.

Through the buildout of an art district — now comprising more than 80 murals and weekly guided tours — as well as its staging of monthly festivals in the heart of the city, the body prides itself as a catalyst for creative economic growth.

“The murals are not just to be seen as some paintings on a wall downtown; these actually bring economic value, and we have created this backdrop where creatives can also now create higher-value content. At the basic level artists first get paid for a mural, but secondary to that they also benefit from the intellectual property (IP) of their work when used as a prop for other projects. As an organisation Kingston Creative owns the IP for the block, and from that position we often negotiate on projects to ensure that a share of whatever profit also goes back to creatives,” Dempster Chung said.

Having attracted some big names in the global creative community and on the heels of it being awarded World Best Creative Destination by the Creative Tourism Network, Kingston continues to stand out among the best of cities globally based on its high level of cultural and creative assets — which gives it fierce competitive advantage and growing international recognition, Dempster Chung further said.

Pointing to other art districts such as the Dallas Arts District in the US which tripled earnings in five years, moving from US$128.6 million to US$395.8 million in 2017 according to data from the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), Dempster Chung believes that the expected development of the Kingston waterfront by global funding partner World Bank, could unlock similar opportunities in terms of cultural development, tourism value, and revenue earning for the city.

In addition to spending by organisations, the non-profit arts and culture industries in the Dallas Arts District leveraged US$113.6 million in event-related spending by its audiences. The study found that as a result of attending a cultural event, attendees often ate dinner in local restaurants, paid for parking, bought gifts and souvenirs, and stayed at a local hotel etc — activities which supported 14,932 full-time equivalent jobs, generating US$381 million in household income and US$43.1 million in local and state government revenues, GCDN’s data outlined.

The World Bank’s effort, which is tied to the Government’s overall redevelopment plan for the first city, is to see the international funding body investing upwards of $300 billion towards the build-up of designated areas across the capital city, including its transport, market and commercial districts.

Dempster Chung, further pointing to a recent strategic shift in the tourism ministry’s long-held sun, sea and sand model, said that going forward this will see the entity begin to focus on other areas outside of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, such as with Kingston as a tourism destination city, which it has also now earmarked for a series of upcoming investments.

“There is an important announcement coming in August which we will be making with the Jamaica Tourist Board, and it concerns their support for culture and sustainable tourism in urban destinations,” she said.