WITH CHANGES there will always be criticisms.

That is the view of Minister of Culture Steve Blackett, who was responding to comments surrounding this year's recently concluded National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) showcase.

In a change of what had obtained in the past, the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) eliminated the semi-final element of the performing arts, which meant that people went straight to the finals.

And what used to be several nights of finals at the Frank Collymore Hall were converted into showcases, featuring one discipline each night.

However, the LIME NIFCA Gala, which comes off this Sunday night at the Garfield Sobers Complex. has been retained.

Chief executive officer of the NCF, Dr Donna Hunte-Cox, who took up office in May this year, at that time said the foundation was trying to rebrand to make it more exciting.

"With changes you can appreciate that there will be criticisms and they won't be ignored by the NCF, because in our post mortems and in our reviews we will definitely look at the criticisms and where they are justified we do make the necessary adjustments.

"But where we think our efforts in reformulating the events themselves have paid off, we will continue with them, but we will at all times take into consideration comments of our stakeholders which are extremely important to us," Blackett told the DAILY NATION.

He agreed with the CEO, that an organisation such as the NCF always had to be innovative to keep things fresh and current.

"What I do note from comments of those who attended, is that they seemed to think the presentations were of a high standard this year, continuing from former years and I think we should be justifiably proud as Barbadians of the talent we have within our shores" he stated.