Published:
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Article from The Guardian Media
Allison Demas, former Cott CEO, was a panelist at a one-day seminar entitled Intellectual Property and the Visual Artist, held at NAPA, on Saturday. Photo: Shirley Bahadur
The private sector needs to step up and support the creative industries. This was the view expressed by Allison Demas, CEO of ad monitoring firm Media InSite. Demas, former Cott CEO, was a panelist at a one-day seminar entitled Intellectual Property and the Visual Artist, held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), in Port-of-Spain, last Saturday. Other panelists were Mary-Ann Richards, regional coordinator of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and attorney Courtenay Williams. Citing “empirical evidence” showing the revenue earning potential of the arts, Demas said the local private sector was dropping the ball in terms of funding, so that the industry was not able to develop and reach its “tremendous potential”.
“Do you think Bob Marley, with all his talent, could have reached where he did without the investment of Chris Blackwell and Island Records?
“Six years ago, Robyn Rihanna Fenty was…taking a maxi taxi in Barbados. Now, after the investment of Def Jam Records she is an international star. “Where is our private sector? We need to invest in the creative industries,” she said, adding that the creative community needed to work to educate the public and lobby the authorities to create change. Demas was speaking on copyright and the visual arts, while Richards discussed the wider concept of intellectual property, especially with regard to Internet technology, and Williams dealt with legal issues, drawing on local cases. The seminar was attended by artists, photographers, filmmakers and other stakeholders in the visual arts. The panel was moderated by artist Ken Crichlow. The event was an initiative of the Art Society, in collaboration with the National Museum and the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Service Industries.
Article from The Guardian Media