Cultural practitioner knocks ‘hobby’ approach to the arts

Creative art has to be treated like a business rather than just a mere hobby if it is to evolve as a sustainable model in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

This is the view shared by poet and former Cultural Officer, Anthony Theobalds at the first-ever panel discussion hosted as part of the activities under the Performing Arts Festival during the month of November.

The discussion, held under the theme ‘Exploring the current state of culture and creative arts in SVG’ brought together cultural practitioners across various disciplines, including visual arts, literature, music and film at the Peace Memorial Hall on Saturday, November 16, 2024.

Theobalds, who functioned at the Department of Culture for three decades, expressed concern about the laid-back attitude expressed by local creatives toward their craft. This, he noted, has hindered the overall development of the arts in SVG.

“I spent 30 years at the Department of Culture and every year there was a workshop on some element of management of artistic production. There would be an invitation for 100 people and there would be three… it is not that there hasn’t been an effort to provide some of the learning,” he pointed out.

“When the Copyright Act was considered there were a series of meetings to try to explain to the people who are in the creative arts that copyright cannot be done for you, you have to do copyright for yourself. .. Over a period of five years or so before the law was passed, meetings inviting 40 and 50 people had three and seven [people].”

Theobalds added that creatives are not willing to put in the effort to set up legitimate businesses for their craft, as most view it as a hobby and not ‘work’.

“The most basic element is that this has to change from being hobby to being work. When you are in a hobby, you do it if you feel like, you do it when it suits you, and you do it generally for the notoriety. When you approach this thing for work, you realize that this is hard work.”

A ripple effect of this approach, he highlighted, was the lack of support coming from the Ministry of Finance to inject money, events, and products other than the traditional VincyMas.

“Part of the challenge that we are facing in St Vincent and the Grenadines is that people are not willing to [get] serious about working. Where is your lawyer? Where is your business manager? Where are your accounts? Your taxes? The Ministry of Finance think that we in culture are a joke…they don’t see tax returns, they don’t see generation of results.”

Two of the panellists who work closely with schools, Vonnie Roudette and Orande ‘Bomani’ Charles, voiced their concerns about the separation between the arts and the schools’ curriculum.

Commenting specifically on the Secondary School Bands Showcase, Charles said while some schools welcome the initiative, it is a struggle to get other schools on board.

“It speaks to the struggle of how we assimilate the creative arts into the curriculum smoothly so it doesn’t feel like an extracurricular activity, but rather part of the whole learning experience … ”

Roudette echoed similar sentiments, describing the push-back in the past from parents whose students were enrolled in the A’Level Arts programme at the SVG Community College.

“They would come to me and say ‘you’re wasting their time, there is no future in this’. But as those students have developed and lived their art, many of them earning from their art, they are living proof that the creative arts has huge potential.”

Activities for the National Performing Arts Festival continue today, November 19 and 21 with the Schools Performing Arts Festival at the Peace Memorial Hall.