Creative Arts Giants Recognised

Today at the House of Culture in Belize City, the National Celebrations Commission presented awards and recognised individuals who have contributed tremendously over the years in different sectors of the creative arts industry. Among those honoured were Leila Vernon, Beverly Smith Lopez, Zee Edgell, Rosita Balthazar, Leroy Green, Lucio Alcoser, and many more. They were selected by a panel after submissions were made on their behalf to the Commission. This event will now form a part of the calendar of activities going forward during this patriotic season. News Five spoke with Minister of Education and Culture, Francis Fonseca.

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Culture

“We don’t do enough of this in Belize. We have not given enough respect and acknowledgement to our creative thinkers, our artists, our musicians, our dancers. So I felt, as soon as I took over responsibility for culture and became the chairman of the National Celebrations Commission, I felt it was absolutely important that on the calendar of events, we had an opportunity to recognise and acknowledge these people. So many of them have gone ahead of us, they have passed away within – in my view – without proper public acknowledgement and respect and so we can only honour their legacy and in doing so, we also honour and pay tribute to Belizeans who are continuing their work and that is what we tried to today. We tried to achieve that today – honouring those legacy and at the same time paying tribute to those Belizeans in these respective areas who are continuing that work each and every day, who have dedicated their lives to art to culture to music to writing.”