Jamaica is making a push to harness the power of its craft sector.
The country’s government has announced plans to establish a Craft Development Institute, in partnership with the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.
The institute, which is slated to debut in September 2018, will be accompanied by the creation of two new artisan villages in Falmouth, Trelawny and Ocho Rios, St. Ann, respectively.
The villages will aim to provide a merchandising facility for tourism partners already supplying craft products and new providers cultivated from the Craft Development Institute.
“What we are doing is creating the capacity to expand the range and diversity of indigenous products while providing a marketing outlet – an appropriate marketing facility. We are creating not just a facility for merchandising, but also an attraction that’s marketable,” said Jamaica Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett (photo above, trying on a locally-made hat).
— Caribbean Journal Staff