Renewed Investment From BIMAP

Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP) has rejoined the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) family with a two year investment in the performing arts and culinary arts disciplines. This partnership on the development of artistes through education began in 2017 with scholarships towards the completion of a certificate in Management Studies and a course in Entrepreneurship.

Last year a semi-professional category was introduced in the performing arts disciplines of Music, Theatre and Dance to create a clear path of advancement for the artistes as they further develop themselves within their related fields.

BIMAP teamed up with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) on this effort providing a prize of a one year course leading to a certificate in management studies, awarded to the highest scoring individuals in all three disciplines of the performing arts at a value of $2500 each.  The first awardee in the performing arts was the group, Dance Collective, whose member Abbi Matthews has since benefitted from this rewarding opportunity.

In the area of culinary arts, BIMAP saw the vision for growth in the industry through Entrepreneurship and offered a prize of a course in that field of study to the exhibitor with the most market-ready product. Gregg Mosley-Clarke was the recipient of that inaugural prize for his 100% Bajan made, Sorrel Sugar Cane Mead branded ‘Steel Donkey’.

Dr. Sonia Greenidge-Franklyn, Executive Director at BIMAP pointed out, “BIMAP continues to be at the forefront of the development of the cultural industries through education and training to prepare and upskill those persons who have pursued careers in the field. Our partnership with the NCF extends to both the Crop Over calypso and the NIFCA competitions. We have been instrumental in the development of several of the artistes in the performing arts and we welcome the other areas now.”

In commending the sponsor for their support of culture generally and particularly NIFCA, Alison Sealy-Smith the NCF’s Festival Events Consultant noted that it could not have been a more exciting time for BIMAP to be on board, ‘it is the right time for these types of management and entrepreneurship training prizes’.  She commented on the interesting dynamics shaping up in the performing arts sector, specifically in the area of dance, where there has been a definite upsurge in entrepreneurship with many of the dance schools/companies hosting their own successful productions/sequels outside of the NIFCA season.

Sealy-Smith attributed this upward trend to the continued dialog on the opportunities available in the creative economy which has directly contributed to the start of more and more of these business ventures.

In the discipline of Theatre, she noted a positive gravitation towards the production of long form, full length plays and an increase in the entries in the musical theatre genre.  Again, this she identified as a demonstration of the business mindset developing, since musical theatre has the most commercial potential.

Among the exciting changes for 2018, of which BIMAP will be a part through the provision of these prizes, is the opportunity for patrons to enjoy the finals of two nights of theatre.

For the theatre nights on November 9^th and 10^th slated for the Daphne Joseph-Hackett Theatre this year, the home of theatre in Barbados, it will be the women to take to the stage on Friday and the men on Saturday with their full length plays, in addition to a lineup of musical theatre, mixed disciplined and drama speech performances up for judging on each day.

The start time for these events is 7:00 p.m.  Admission is $30 for adults and $10 for children.  With a little over a week out from the theatre finals the tickets are almost sold out.