The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis says his administration is making plans to further develop The Bahamas' orange economy with a performing arts school.

Prime Minister Davis spoke to reporters while visiting ArtsEd performing arts school during the week in London. He and other dignitaries were preparing for Saturday's coronation of King Charles III.

The ArtsEd school is an independent performing arts school that caters to over 600 students, ages 11 and up, including higher education.

While at the London school, Mr Davis toured several of the programmes, including theatre, ballet, editing and wardrobe design. Mr Davis says he hopes to similarly develop The Bahamas’ orange economy with a performing arts school.

“ArtsEd is a wonderful experience,” Mr Davis said. “I now see what we have to do in The Bahamas and obviously we’ll attempt to forge a partnership to expose our up-and-coming budding artists, actors and artisans to be a part of what I am seeing here,” he said.

“We are now topping up the budget to allocate sufficient funds to ensure that we can execute our plan and develop the performing arts schools.”

He added: “We do have the talent to match. And do remember now, we’ve seen that on the world stage before. We’ve had Sidney Poitier. We had Calvin Lockhart. We had, even before them, Sam Williams.

“And so the raw talent is there, it’s just nurturing and exploiting and exposing. That is the idea of developing the orange economy. It’s connecting with institutes, such as this, that provide the opportunities for our young people to be exposed,” he said.

Principal of ArtsEd Dr Julie Spencer, who accompanied Mr Davis on the tour, spoke on the importance of performing arts.

“I think it’s very important to nurture young talent and I think this is what ArtsEd does, it nurtures young talent to gain the technique and discipline they need to be successful at being performers,” she said.

She expressed gratitude for Mr Davis’ visit: “It’s wonderful to have people come in and see us, but also that they take the time, and that they come in and that they’re interested.

“Our student population is very diverse, (they) come from all over the place and different situations. So, to have someone so eminent to come in and to just watch them and acknowledge them and thank them is amazing,” she said.