Nine Years In: How Kingston Creative Helped Shape a Creative City

 

 

Nine Years In: How Kingston Creative Helped Shape a Creative City

Written by Andrea Dempster-Chung Co-founder of Kingston Creative

January 2026

 

Nine years ago on February 1, 2017, the cofounders of Kingston Creative set out with a simple but ambitious idea: that Jamaican culture could be a tool for city-building, for sustainable economic growth and for the empowerment of a new generation of creatives. What began as a self-funded pilot project with the painting of 8 murals in Water Lane, has since grown into a movement supported by hundreds of donors and supporters.  

This movement has fundamentally reframed how Downtown Kingston is seen; by the travelers who now seek out Downtown Kingston on their visits to Jamaica, by creatives who now use it as a backdrop for their creative events, music and film projects, and by the residents that call Kingston home.

For almost a decade, Kingston Creative has worked at the intersection of cultural tourism, urban renewal, and economic development.  By working with city planners, property owners, corporate partners and multilateral donors, government stakeholders and entrepreneurs, Kingston Creative has demonstrated that a creative city is not built overnight, nor is it built by artists alone.  It is built through collaboration, sustained investment and a shared cultural confidence - where we bet on the power of Jamaican culture to change the realities of the capital city.

Creative Placemaking

At the heart of Kingston Creative’s work has been creative placemaking, where art, design, community and cultural activity is used to activate public spaces and to shift how people perceive and experience the city. Kingston Creative moved forward with murals, festivals, walking tours, a creative hub and artisan markets, transforming walls and forgotten corners into instagrammable sites of pride and possibility.

These interventions did more than beautify.  They challenged long-standing stigmas attached to Downtown Kingston, inviting people back into spaces that over generations they had learned to avoid.  In 2024, Adopt a Block was launched, and Digicel, Bank of Jamaica, VM, Gore, Barita and National stepped up to demonstrate practical corporate leadership in Downtown. Through this consistent “slow work” of fundraising, festivals, capacity-building and a visible artistic presence now totalling 118 murals, Kingston Creative helped to reintroduce the city to itself.  It showed that Downtown Kingston is not only a place of history and heritage, but that it can be a space of contemporary creativity, safety and joy.

Writing a New Cultural Narrative

As creative activity increased in Downtown Kingston, so did visitorship.  The monthly Artwalk Festival drew thousands of local and international visitors to the city, contributing directly to tourism flows and local spending with hundreds of Jamaican artisans.  As young stars like Sevana, Mortimer, Lila Ike, Royal Blu and Runkus took to the stage, they were not just performing, they were bringing in their fans and helping to write a new narrative for the city. Restaurants, vendors, drivers and tour guides all benefitted from the increased traffic, while Downtown Kingston began to emerge as a new destination for cultural tourism.
  
Importantly, these experiences, tours, festivals and meetups offered visitors a more nuanced narrative of Downtown, as the shift towards a night economy with weekend parties and jazz nights began to take shape. Awards began to flow in - “World’s Best Creative Destination”, “RJR Gleaner Award for Arts & Culture”, “Jamaicans.com Best Attraction”. Kingston Creative helped to position the city as a place where culture isn't sanitised and repackaged on a north coast stage, but actively lived and shared in the heart of the city.

Impact on Artists and Creative Livelihoods

For artists and creative entrepreneurs, Kingston Creative’s impact has been both tangible and intangible. Over the years, the organisation has provided opportunities for artists to travel and develop overseas business opportunities, for jobs where millions have been earned in mural and performance fees, for certification through incubators, accelerators, hackathons, community training and development programmes and through grants and pitch competitions where artists have received grants ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to $3 million to help to develop their businesses and to stabilise livelihoods during COVID-19. 

Kingston Creative has provided platforms for thousands of creatives  to showcase their work, earn income and build visibility. Murals became calling cards. Performances became gateways to access new audiences,  Markets, meetups and festivals became spaces  of exchange, learning and growth. But beyond exposure, Kingston Creative has consistently advocated for creatives as professionals, whose labour has value and who must be paid for their services.  Creative entrepreneurs have been supported to strengthen their businesses, diversify their income streams and navigate the creative economy with greater confidence. 

Advocacy, Lobbying and Sector Visibility

Kingston Creative’s role has also extended beyond programming into advocacy and lobbying in Jamaica and at international fora such as the World Arts Summit, the Global Creative District Network, the Global Creative Economy Council and the World Conference on Creative Economy.  The organisation has worked to ensure that Jamaican creatives are recognised in policy conversations about urban development, cultural tourism, and economic growth.  

The Creative Cultural Industry Alliance of Jamaica (CCIAJ), cofounded by Kingston Creative, officially launched the 2025 Jamaica Creative and Cultural Industries Survey Report, providing the clearest, data-driven picture yet of Jamaica’s dynamic creative economy.  By gathering and publishing data, convening stakeholders and speaking on the value of the sector ($2 billion USD and 5% of Jamaica’s GDP - United Nations 2025); Kingston Creative has helped to elevate culture as a vital component of sustainable national development.

This advocacy and the key partnerships that have been built, have played a role in the increased recognition of the creative economy’s potential to transform Jamaica.  It has also highlighted the vulnerabilities that creatives face, particularly in moments of crisis.

What comes next

As Kingston Creative enters its next chapter, the focus shifts from proof of concept to scaling, sustainability, investment and resilience.  The Artwalk Festival remains central to this vision. These large-scale, city-staging moments allow for cities to showcase their creative talent and highlight neglected areas while being open, vibrant and safe.  The Arts Festival, training and murals slated for 2026 in Montego Bay will be one such example of scaling and expanding to new locales, signaling the potential for creative placemaking and sector building beyond the capital.

Looking outward, Kingston needs more major city-branding signature events that place it firmly on the global cultural map.  Events that attract international attention while remaining rooted in local culture.  These moments help creative cities to compete globally, collaborate locally and be counted as centres of creativity.

Creatives need more access to travel and grant programmes that facilitate mobility and capital, allowing them to learn, collaborate and export into markets beyond Jamaica.   Training programmes must also evolve, moving beyond Business 101 into deeper engagement with finance, AI and digital, intellectual property and investment readiness.
The recent launch of the Creative Resilience Fund, with grants of $30,000 to creatives affected by Hurricane Melissa, marks a critical step forward and a potential blueprint for resilience for the region.  In a world beset by climate shocks, geopolitical instability and fragile cultural economies, creatives in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are often the first impacted and the last supported.  This fund represents a call to action for all stakeholders, government, private sector and the Diaspora, to prioritise the sustainability of cultural livelihoods and the preservation of culture.

Still Building the City

As Downtown Kingston becomes a key part of the city’s identity, maintenance and preservation, in partnership with Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), is essential.  Public art and public spaces must be cared for if they are to remain a source of pride and attraction.  Cohesive national policies must be in place to protect creative people and places, and creatives must be encouraged to occupy buildings in Downtown for true renewal to start to take place.
Diaspora engagement and investment is also essential for success. The concept for Kingston Creative was developed by cofounders who lived in the Diaspora - and the Jamaican diaspora has long been an ambassador for Jamaican culture.  Now there is an opportunity to deepen that role, through funding, mentorship, partnerships and advocacy by working with Kingston Creative to help to move Jamaica’s creative sector forward. 

Nine years in, Kingston Creative has helped to shape a vibrant creative city by making space for art, for communities, for people, for possibility.  The next chapter calls for broader collaboration, new partnerships, deeper investment and bold steps to take Downtown Kingston forward. The work continues, because a creative city is never finished, it is always evolving.

About Kingston Creative
Kingston Creative is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using art, culture, and creativity to drive social and economic transformation in Jamaica. Through public art projects, creative entrepreneurship programs, and community development initiatives, Kingston Creative is 
shaping Downtown Kingston into a vibrant cultural hub. For interviews, media coverage, or more information, please contact [email protected].