LOBBY GOVERNMENT to have cultural attachés in Barbadian offices and embassies abroad.

That's the advice from chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Dr Donna Hunte-Cox, to the music sector.

She was speaking last Thursday at an NCF-hosted music forum at the Bump & Wine Café.

"We need to lobby Government to have cultural attachés at our offices and embassies around the world to seek out opportunities for Barbadian artistes, specifically in Europe and America.

"We need someone to represent us;. we can't rely on the Barbados Tourism Authority and we have to be ready with a product that promotes Barbados, who we are," she said, adding that the presentations had to be of a high quality. "Sometimes we can't look at the lowest bidder. The representatives must be good ambassadors for our country."

Hunte-Cox was speaking to a small group of music practitioners during the second of two music "think tanks" convened to have direct contact with them.

"I want to hear directly from the music community, your issues and challenges; how can we better the industry; [and] try to get solutions to take to Government," she said, adding that education was crucial in this regard.

"There are academic programmes at both Barbados Community College and the University of the West Indies. But we need to take it to the next level and get down to the nitty-gritty of the industry. The NCF is proposing to have the national vocational qualification minimum level qualifications so people can learn the craft and be certified.

"It will cater to the naturally talented who may not have the seven O'Levels needed to matriculate into the Barbados Community College."

Emphasising she wanted "to hear the good, the bad and the ugly", she noted that it had proven difficult in the past for the music community to unite.

"The time is ripe for Barbadian musicians to come together," she said, citing the recent surge in international focus on the island through the appearance of Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho at Farley Hill.

"We need you, the artistes, to come together and say what you need."

A range of talents and interests were represented within the audience, including performers, musicians, technical people and songwriters.

Among the concerns raised by the group were lack of educational opportunities that meet the real needs of the sector; lack of performance opportunities in this saturated market; the overly-dependent nature of artistes, who rely on everyone except themselves to be successful; the absence of the large number of calypsonians; lack of opportunity and support for genres of music other than soca; and lack of the necessary management teams to ensure support. (ES)