JIS: Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, is hailing the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts as an important contributor to the development of Caribbean culture, and Jamaica as a brand.
Addressing a staff development conference at the school’s Arthur Wint Drive headquarters in Kingston on August 23, Senator Reid said the College must nourish and nurture Jamaica’s unique international brand for generations to come.
The Minister emphasised that all stakeholders must work together to ensure that the College achieve its individual and collective pursuits in a spirit of camaraderie.
“The College is certainly a great Caribbean centre of learning and development and it is important that we preserve (this) legacy while we embrace the challenges and opportunities of the future,” Senator Reid said.
“We must never forget that this noble institution is the leading regional voice as it relates to training in the arts, and it is no ordinary college,” he added.
Meanwhile, Vice Principal of Academic Affairs at the College, Carol Hamilton, told JIS News that the conference, which includes all categories of staff, is being held to “bring everyone back together to refocus and to look again at the College’s mission and objectives.”
“We have these conferences twice for the academic year at the start of each semester. It is essentially just to be ready to meet the students next week. We do workshops, we reflect on our past achievements, what worked and what didn’t,” the Vice Principal said.
CAPTION: Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (right), in discussion with Principal of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Nicholeen DeGrasse-Johnson (second left), at a staff development conference at the institution’s Arthur Wint Drive headquarters in St. Andrew on August 23. Others (from left) are: Vice Principal of Academic Affairs, Carol Hamilton, and College Orator, Dr. Amina Blackwood Meeks.