Marcus Garvey Performing Arts Award Encouraging Excellence Among Youths

For over 10 years, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) has been encouraging young people to strive for excellence in the performing arts which is celebrated through the National Festival of the Performing Arts Programme, where the top award is the Marcus Garvey Award for Excellence. Recently the Ascot and Ardenne High Schools copped this prestigious award.

National Hero, Rt. Excellent Marcus Garvey played an integral role in Jamaican arts and culture while promoting excellence and for this reason, JCDC Executive Director, Delroy Gordon believes that the Marcus Garvey Award encourages young people to aim for excellence and is an appropriate avenue to continue Garvey’s legacy.

The Executive Director made his remarks at the Awards Ceremony held on Friday, November 7 at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston adding that Garvey’s contribution to Jamaican culture and the arts has been phenomenal. “The Festival of the Performing Arts Competition has been encouraging students and groups to reproduce many of Garvey’s works including his sayings and even songs which help to keep his legacy alive. We hope that other persons will be inspired to be a part of the Performing Arts which has been the starting point for many outstanding Jamaican performing artistes” Mr. Gordon said.

The recipients, Ascot High who won the award for the year 2011 and Ardenne High was the recipient for 2012, 2013 and 2014. The schools excelled in at least three of the five areas in the Performing Arts Programme, namely, Speech, Drama, Music, Dance and Traditional Folk Forms. Both schools have won several parish and national awards in the various disciplines and are currently preparing for the 2015 National Festival of the Performing Arts.

The entry forms are available online at the JCDC website, www.jcdc.gov.jm, at the JCDC Head Office located at 3-5 Phoenix Avenue, Kingston 10 and all JCDC parish offices island-wide.