Ruth Blackman (left), Permanent Secretary from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and Javier Urra, Chief Operations Officer of the Inter-American Development Bank in Barbados.
Since its inception, which was hosted in Guyana in 2008, the Youth Village has become an important feature in the CARIFESTA Festival and Andrea Wells, Festival Director, officially announced that the Youth Village will be present at CARIFESTA XIII.
Wells’ announcement came during the official launch of “Youth Village: Youth Talk”, which was held at the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Headquarters on Thursday evening. Justin Poleon, artist and youth advocate, revealed that the village would be a hub for those who love and create art and will be hosted at the Barbados Community College from August 18 to 22.
He explained that the youth-based activity, Youth Talk at CARIFESTA, will provide a forum for collaboration between the Division of Youth, CARIFESTA Secretariat and other regional Ministries of Youth as well as with the main sponsor, the IDB. He noted that they planned to engage youth to play an active role in speaking out on youth issues and develop heightened interests in the creative and cultural arts.
Petra Haynes, a visual artiste and performing manager, explained that Youth Talk at CARIFESTA was designed for participants to creatively use their ideas and materials available in their environment, create artwork demonstrating skill and craftsmanship, promote reduce, reuse and repurpose strategies in the environment, work collaboratively in groups to achieve common tasks and design works of art from found objects collected.
Haynes expressed that it was their hope that the youths’ participation in this event would create an awareness in them as they learn to responsibly manage their environment and generate a greater appreciation for art, especially those that were creatively made from recycled materials. “This is my call to all young Barbadians to come out and experience and enjoy the work of arts at the Youth Village to join in the fun of learning,” she said.
Chief Operations Officer of the IDB in Barbados, Javier Urra, expressed that the IDB was extremely grateful to be able to lend a hand in the social development aspect of the region. “We, in the best way that we can, try to support Latin American and the Caribbean through our actions which are loans, technical assistance and grants; but sometimes we get lost in the money, arts is the energy of the Caribbean and the young people,” he said.