Dr Leon Higgs was the proud recipient of an official Creative Nassau logo shirt from CN Co-Founder Pam Burnside, as thanks for his assistance in endorsing Creative Nassau's application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network earlier this year. Dr Higgs is the Secretary General for the Bahamas National Commission for UNESCO. He stated that he will be wearing his shirt at CN's Official Launch later this evening!
Luke Fannin, Editor of the Santa Fe Creative Tourism blog has just posted Part 1 of this story about Creative Nassau after an interview with Co-Founder, Pam Burnside. Watch this space for Part 2 as Creative Nassau's story travels to the world!
To Catch a Stick of Fire: Creative Tourism Journeys to the Bahamas
by Luke Fannin
For more than half a century, nations like the Bahamas have been synonymous with the idea
of the tropical island paradise: white sand beaches, relaxing seaside vacations, palm trees,
cocktails with paper umbrellas... at least in the minds of many Americans and other citizens
of the First World, that is. It’s an image commercial marketers and tourism officials in
Nassau, the Bahamas’ capital city, have heavily promoted since the colonial era, and they
have done so quite successfully--the Bahamas is easily the most prosperous Caribbean nation
thanks in large part to its tourism industry.
But that success has come at great cost, with commercial cruise lines taking over the tourism
market, taking money out of the local economies--as much as 60 cents on the dollar--and
rubbing out the unique cultural elements of popular tourist destinations. “We recently had a
conference in Nassau with six small developing Caribbean island nations,” says Pam
Burnside, owner of Doongalik Studios Art Gallery in Nassau and one of the founders of
Creative Nassau, a flagship creative tourism program in the Caribbean region. “Someone
showed a promotional poster of a palm tree on a sandy beach and asked, ‘Which Caribbean
island do you think this comes from?’ It was actually from somewhere in East Asia. So there’s
this generic mass marketing throughout the region and around the world, not just in the
Bahamas, that has nothing to do with the unique individual islands and nations that comprise
it.”
When Ms. Burnside and her late husband, Jackson Burnside III, founded Doongalik Studios
more than 40 years ago, they did so with a vision of counteracting these external,
homogenizing forces by bringing the dynamic artistic talent of the Bahamian people to the
forefront of their national identity. Their original vision statement is as follows: “By the year
2020, the majority of visitors to The Bahamas will come to experience its Art, Culture and
Heritage rather than its Sun, Sand and Sea.”
For years, the Burnsides worked to affect what change they could, promoting the work of
local artists and artisans with steadfast belief that the overwhelming artistic talent of their
countrymen and women could help to make the Bahamas into an internationally recognized
creative center. Then, in 2008, they attended the UNESCO Creative Cities Network
International Conference on Creative Tourism held in Santa Fe, where they heard the same
message they’d been trying to spread for some four decades. “The message we heard at the
conference resonated so strongly with our Doongalik vision,” Ms. Burnside says. “We realized
how art could help to move tourism forward... so we began meeting with about 20
like-minded people, artists and business owners, and we started talking about how to go about
getting Nassau in the Creative Cities Network.”
The arts heritage in the Bahamas is strong, but commercial tourism marketing has made that
truth seem a well-kept secret. “Being a part of both the business and art communities, I know
that a lot of visitors just don’t have a clue about the level of arts and culture available here,”
says Burnside. “It’s because we’ve never marketed ourselves in that way. So as an artists’
community, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to market ourselves for our art, and the Ministry of
Tourism is finally beginning to understand that this could be another tool for bringing people
into the country.”
Burnside and the Creative Nassau movement believe that two local art forms, straw art and a
unique festival known as junkanoo, are the key elements of their arts culture which will help
to draw the focal point of tourism away from commercial resorts and cruise lines, to the local
culture and people where it belongs. These art forms are the reason they have applied to the
Creative Cities Network as a City of Crafts and Folk Art. And while these arts traditions are
storied and proud, this movement is as much about saving them as it about sharing them
with the world.
........to be continued
Three CN Members have recently been selected for various awards for their accomplishments in the Bahamian community.
Patricia Glinton Meicholas receiving her award from the Governor General His Excellency, Sir Arthur Foulkes
PATRICIA GLINTON MEICHOLAS was presented with the Colour of Harmony Lifetime Achievement Award at the College of The Bahamas for her contributions to Bahamian Literature (read more at www.guanimapress.com)
ROSEMARY HANNA has been selected as a nominee for the Bahamian Icon Awards in the field of Education for her publication "Pictorial History and Memories of Nassau’s Over-The-Hill”. Winners will be announced at the 2014 Bahamian Icon Awards Ceremony on July 12, 2014;
VAUGHN ROBERTS has been selected as one of the 40 Most Outstanding Alumni of the College of The Bahamas in the field of Business and will be honoured at the College of The Bahamas' inaugural Flamingo Ball on June 14.
Creative Nassau sends sincere congratulations to them all!
CN Co-Founder attended TEDx Nassau on May 3, 2014 - the first ever TEDx event held in the country.
Pam Burnside with CN partners, TEDx organizer, Uli Voges (left) and Shelagh Pritchard (right) of the Lignum Vitae Centre
The Creative Nassau Team assisted their member, Quentin 'Barabbas' Woodside to take his junkanoo group to perform in their annual trip to Georgia for the St Patrick's Parade. This event has earmarked the Junkanoo festival abroad as the premier street parade for residents of the area and is a striking example of how Creative Tourism can change the face of visitor experiences!
Barabbas and the Tribe Junkanoo and Community Organization is packing its bags once again to travel to the U.S. by special invitation in their official capacity to perform at the annual St Patrick’s Day Parades on Tybee Island and in Savannah, Georgia for the 10th consecutive year.
CN Members Dr Davidson Hepburn and Pam Burnside attended the SIDS-Tourism Conference under the theme "Tourism as a key sector for development in Island States" at the Melia Resort in Nassau and promoted their Creative Nassau message during the Q&A Session. Presenters and attendees included persons from throughout the Caribbean, Belize, USA, UK, Greece, Seychelles, and the UAE.
Creative Nassau prepares for their Official Launch on Friday, May 16 at Doongalik Studios from 6-9pm
Creative Nassau (CN) has announced that its Official Launch event will be held under the auspices of the Governor General, His Excellency, Sir Arthur Foulkes on Friday, May 16, 2014 from 6-9pm at Doongalik Studios, #20 Village Road.
The community group was formed in 2008 by the late Jackson L. Burnside III and his wife Pam following an inspiring visit to Santa Fe to attend a UNESCO Creative Tourism Conference. On their return, they invited a group of Bahamians, passionate about their country, to join them in showcasing Bahamian culture to the world.
"Under the topic “Seeing What You’re Lookin’ at: Development from Inside Out”, the focus of this presentation is Bahamas tourism, economic development and a way to connect them in a manner that can be sustained and benefit a greater number of Bahamians." PGM
"Thank you Patti and Good afternoon – I would like to add my thanks to the Bahamas Business Outlook Committee for the opportunity to introduce you to our exciting venture - ‘Creative Nassau’. Creative Nassau was formed in 2008 by my late husband Jackson Burnside III after we attended a UNESCO Creative Cities Conference on Creative Tourism in Santa Fe which resonated so clearly with our Doongalik Studios’ vision statement that by the year 2020 more persons will travel to The Bahamas because of its art, culture and heritage rather than merely for its sun, sand, and sea." PB