Hold onto Your Roots event beats out this Saturday

The Youlou Arts Foundation said it has consistently paid attention to the arts in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and has constantly focused on carrying out its mission- that of encouraging and nurturing the arts. This Saturday, September, 20, 2025, it is having a function to give voice to its mission with the staging of an event: Hold On To Your Roots. This Youlou Arts initiative is being done in collaboration with the SVG Drum Foundation. “Hold On To Your Roots” will showcase the visual, performing and literary arts, and is scheduled to take place at the Peace Memorial Hall from 4:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m., and the Youlou Art Foundation is encouraging the public to attend. The event will feature the artwork of several local artists, and crafters, who will have work on sale. There will be artists performing on the drums and poets reciting their poems.

Throughout its 25 years of existence the aim of Youlou Arts Foundation has been to help the arts flourish and excel in the nation, the foundation stated in a release.

Every year during the month of July for the past 24 years the organization has been organizing art activities for the children of SVG. In 2001 Youlou Arts initiated the art programme titled “Growing Young SVG Artists”. A visual arts programme for children between the ages of 5 through 12 years. The programme has been held in Kingstown, Barrouallie, Georgetown, Spring Village, Buccament Bay and Tourama.

This year in addition to offering the annual “Growing Young SVG Artists” programme in rural areas, Youlou Arts collaborated with National Parks, Rivers and Beaches Authority, in their summer programme titled “Conservation Guardians”, which was held at the curators house in the Botanical Garden. The focus was on learning how to repair and restore the environment and taking care of our beloved Botanical Gardens. Art activities consisted of learning to make compost, creating their own logo, making paste paper to collage their own parrot and making a magic carpet. These art activities proved to be of great interest to the children.

Youlou Arts seeks to empower the nation’s youth, to teach them to be creative while learning about their culture, history and heritage.

Another initiative is the Saturday morning art classes that will restart on Saturday, September, 27, 2025. It will cater for children ages 5 through 12 with classes running from 10:00 a.m to 12 noon. The Foundation said it is an opportunity for children to explore all the various ways of making art in a fun and practical way, and is encouraging parents and guardians to register their child/children.