Annual Festival of Arts kicks off at the Bliss
If you are a student poet, dancer, or musician, May is your month because that’s when the annual event that showcases the country’s most creative students take centre stage. I’m referring to the Festival of Arts of course and as News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports from the Bliss, this year’s performances are all show-stoppers.
Kendra Griffith Reporting
This morning a display of performances kicked off the opening of the 2008 National Secondary School and the Belize District Primary School Festival of Arts.
Marcel Cardona, Min. of Youth, Sports & Culture
“The opening of today’s 2008 Belize Primary and Secondary Schools Festival of Arts shall be and shall form part of our culture in the making and each and every single one of us present and those participating can be proud of being part of that history and culture in the making as by these acts we are helping to shape our very own culture and history.”
The month-long event is being held under the theme “Life is Art! Nurture it!” and includes participation of more than twelve hundred poets, dancers, musicians, and dramatists from forty primary schools and thirty secondary institutions.
Kendra Griffith
“You all think that from year to year these performances have been getting better?”
Sharon Flowers, Programme Officer, ICA
“In some areas, yes. Instrumental has been improving and we are at a point where I think we could showcase those children regionally.”
Kendra Griffith
“What areas do think still need a little but more tweaking?”
Sharon Flowers
“Drama needs a lot of work. Dance is coming up. Music vocal needs more work than anything. We are trying to get it to another level, we are trying to get competitive, not only to showcase. So we want to get it to a competitive level where we can even compete regionally.”
To bolster competitive spirits, organisers have upped the ante as prizes have gone from mere certificates to gifts like computers.
And while ICA upgrades standards, the Ministry of Education’s Expressive Arts Coordinator, Leroy Green, is encouraging teachers to recognise the benefits of incorporating the arts into the classroom.
Leroy Green, Expressive Arts Coordinator
“We as educators must make artistic education become a normal, practical, and regular part of the school curriculum. It helps students to think better, it helps them to be more creative, and the bottom line, it helps them to be analytic and expressive. Even teachers can attest the fact that art is also an important tool in getting across certain concepts in their lessons.”
The secondary showcase starts tonight at seven and runs until Friday. The primary schools will take over the stage for two weeks from May twelfth to the thirtieth. On June fifth the Grand Awards Night will feature the best of the best for encore performances. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
Tickets for the shows are five dollars adults, three dollars for children. A visual arts exhibition is also on display at the Bliss. That exhibition will run until June fifteenth.
