Art Look Inside Downtown’s Artwalk Festival - Building Community and Creatives

Art Look Inside Downtown’s Artwalk Festival -  Building Community and Creatives

Courtesy of Kingston Creative
Author: Kearn Christopher Williams

It’s been 8 years since the Art District on Water Lane began as a project, and 7 years since the Art Walk began, activating the space with its tours and the festival, aiding in connecting people to a place. The ethos of Kingston Creative and this project is rooted in that of creative-placemaking; a concept that’s been developed which seeks to understand and explain how people interact with places and spaces, creating various types of value around them. In simple terms, this is why a physical home or a community where one may have been raised tends to have sentimental value. Why visiting one’s old high school or university evokes feelings of nostalgia, or how the streets of a city might remind you of your first carnival experience.

For the Kingston Art District, which has a very important physical aspect to it with its beautiful painted murals to enhance and change the space, at the core of the experience is the people's engagement with it, for it to be meaningful. A research report by the Centre for Cultural Value in the UK highlights the need to have inclusive approaches when developing local cultural strategies and policies to a place which is applicable to the Art District in Downtown Kingston. Finding out who accesses the spaces and the type of engagement they associate with it can shape what the Art Walk festival ought to look like and helps us understand the meaning it has for people. In another report, the Centre for Cultural Value also brings to the forefront the idea about a lifelong cultural engagement as we consider how an event like Art Walk can appeal to various generational interests, but also be sustained and relevant as newer generations emerge. It’s for this reason that we sought to engage with some of the Art Walk festival stakeholders, including its attendees and creative performers, to get a sense of their perception of the festival to better ascertain its value.

The most noteworthy feeling that several of the attendees I interviewed stated was that they felt the Art Walk festival is uniting people from all walks of life, in celebration of Jamaican culture and identity. “It’s bringing people from uptown, downtown and cross sections of Jamaica,” remarked one man as he expressed his reasons for attending. This importance of coming out to support and celebrate even left another patron confused as to why more people do not attend the festival, given the invaluable work that it’s doing in this regard. It links directly with one of the core values of Kingston Creative to nurture artists and creative entrepreneurs, whilst building community through a collaborative effort within the creative space. The activation of the Art District is therefore essential for its survival as beautiful, though stagnant physical walls create a richer meaning through engagement and memory creation.

A key response from the interviewees was also their belief of the positive impact Art Walk festival is having on changing the perception of Downtown Kingston. Most of the patrons who were spoken to all came from other parts of Kingston and commented on the stigma of crime and violence that’s been associated with Downtown Kingston for decades. It was a joy to hear one woman remark about the feeling of safety at Art Walk, and for others the opportunity and reasons that it gives them to come to Downtown outside of primarily business, but rather for entertainment. “I actually love Downtown more than Uptown,” one patron said as he shared how his time working Downtown has connected him to the location, which has led to his staunch support for Art Walk and the chance to experience something different each time he attends. These responses were testament to the mission of regenerating the urban environment of Downtown Kingston, with arts and culture as a catalyst for who people live, work, play and think.

When it comes to engaging with creativity, whether for professional creatives, emerging ones or the general public, it’s also important that these opportunities remain a key feature of Art Walk, which is built upon the creativity of Jamaicans, and those of the local community. The Open Mic segment is a classic example of this, with one more mature patron who hails from a downtown neighbourhood stating that though he did not win the top prize at a previous Art Walk, he continues to enter because of the opportunity it gives him to perform. Similarly, it was refreshing to see even some senior attendees take part in a dinki mini dance workshop where they quickly learnt some choreography and performed it in the streets. As Kingston Creative thinks about its strategies for lifelong cultural engagement, this cross section appeal and opportunities give anyone, regardless of their age, a chance to explore and discover new creative and cultural interests.

For arts and culture, the idea of having lifelong cultural engagement for people is more readily sustained with a positive memory creation associated with doing such. This was also reflected in responses given by some patrons, who attended Art Walk for the first time as members of the Jamaican diaspora, and how the cultural expressions, performances and preservation of heritage, immediately connected them to the Jamaica they might have left behind, when they learnt of such in their youth.

With a new year on the horizon and plans for fresh ideas and strategies around the Art Walk festival to be unveiled, what will continue to scale the success of the festival, is the very thing that it is centered upon: the people. We need Jamaicans to know and engage with this free public art festival that celebrates them, uplifts them and preserves the very culture that continues to put the country on a world map. We need Jamaicans to be encouraged, see and believe in immense value that such an event already has; one that builds community and develops creative talent; where uptown meets downtown, where downtown meets downtown, where established artist meets artistic curiosity, and where these relationships out of these many, unites one people for a lifelong and lifetime of cultural heritage and practice to come.

Kearn Christopher Williams
PhD Candidate
School of Performance and Cultural Industries
University of Leeds

Kearn completed a work placement as a Visiting Researcher at Kingston Creative in September and October 2024 where he explored the cultural value and cultural evaluation of the Art Walk festival.

December 2024