Platform for creative sector work ‘coming’

The government is planning a digital platform to connect Barbadian creative practitioners with paid work, help them set rates and encourage National Insurance contributions as part of a wider push for year-round growth in the creative industries, Minister for Culture Senator Shane Archer has said. A proposed app would make it easier for people seeking creative services to find practitioners, while also opening more opportunities for those looking for work. Director of the Jean & Norma Holder Hospitality Institute Roderick Prescod (SB) Senator Archer said the cultural sector was “ready for the next step” but needed greater support to help practitioners turn their talents into sustainable businesses. He said: “I honestly believe that all sectors in our creative industry are ready for the next step, [and] are ready to earn all year round.

“Regardless if those are the writers, regardless of if those are the spoken word artists, regardless of those are the visual artists, musical artists… the point that we have to make is that we need to upscale our young people and our people that are involved in these industries. ” (Photo credit: Shamar Blunt) The idea for the platform emerged from a recent gig-economy workshop hosted by the Division of Youth and Culture at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, where hundreds of young people shared their views on the industry, Senator Archer said. “We want to create an app, but it’ll be a programme where persons can come and say, for example, if you own a restaurant in St Lucy and you want a young guitarist to come up, you own a hotel on the east coast and you want to have a young singer come up to sing at your [event]… it makes it easy and accessible for those persons that are looking for work and those persons that are looking to engage…