Kingston Creative will launch an annual summit this month, the Kingston Culture Forum. The Kingston Culture Forum is a conference convening cultural and creative industry stakeholders in the public, private, academic and social sectors. The theme for the event will be “Downtown Kingston: creative economy, placemaking and sustainable urban development”.
The first staging, slated for September 24th of this year, aims to attract a wide audience with participation from local creatives, as well as regional and global participants. The Kingston Culture Forum will focus on centering cultural and creative dialogue on Downtown Kingston, building confidence in using technology for the sustainable preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of creative industries and to also advocate for a data-driven approach to cultural and creative industry policymaking.
The Kingston Creative Culture Forum programme will include the following components:
- Museums, and heritage institutions and their role in preserving cultural memory in the digital age – Moderated by – Dr. Sonjah Stanley Niaah, Institute Caribbean Studies
- Creative Placemaking and Urban Regeneration in Cultural and Creative Cities – Moderator – Moderated by – Ms. Maxine Fisher-Casserly, Urban Development Corporation
- Policies for growing cultural and creative industries through the Festival/Experience economy – Moderated by – Mr. Harold Davis, Jamaica Business Development Corporation
- Capacity building in communities: promoting creative industry and preserving heritage in at-risk communities – Moderated by – Ms. Rhian Holder, Jamaica Social Investment Fund
- Creative Partnership & Opportunity Pitch – Moderated by – Mr. Kimalea Campbell, Executive Director, Weekly Projects
- ‘CreaTech’: best practices in Creativity and Technology amongst creatives – Moderator – Dr. Isis Semaj-Hall, Pree Lit Magazine
Additionally, the event will feature a performance by Sevana and an extensive list of esteemed guest speakers including:
- Jherane Patmore, Rebel Women Lit
- Joshua Chamberlain, The Alpha Institute
- Renee Robinson, JAMPRO
- Michael Holgate, The Ashe Company
- Kevin Jackson, Jamaican Animation Nation Network
- Dr. Shani Roper, University of the West Indies Museum
- Justine Henzell, Calabash Literary Festival
- Howard McIntosh, Economic Advisory Board
- Charmaine Brimm, Planning Institute of Jamaica
- JLL, Music Producer
- O’Neil Lawrence, National Gallery of Jamaica
More participants will be announced. To register and for more information please visit – bit.ly/kingstoncultureforumregistration
Given the importance of the cultural and creative industries to the vitality of Jamaica and the region, Kingston Creative wants to address the global challenges, and consider the role that technology, enabled by public-private-third sector partnerships, will play in sustainable development through preserving cultural heritage and promoting the creative industry.