Ardenne High School cemented its hold on the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Marcus Garvey Awards for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
The school has continuously impressed audiences and judges at the JCDC competition for over a decade and did so with ease at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at The University of the West Indies on October 11.
The school’s commitment to cultivating great talents, dedication to the arts, and creativity gained them the top slot, establishing them as a dominant force in this renowned competition.
Ojea Sheckleford, Ardenne’s choir director says the journey of preparing the students for the competitions required a lot of discipline, but was fun as they are all family oriented.
“Ardenne always has a lot happening for the choir, so it was a very difficult and rigorous process which required a lot of discipline from myself and the choir, but while it is a lot of hard work, it’s a lot of fun because the choir is a family and all the performing arts group at Ardenne they are a family,” said Sheckleford.
The Ardenne Road-based institution competed again schools and groups such as Green Island High School, Port Antonio Theatre Group and St Catherine High, which was also recognised during the ceremony. There were also performances from the other schools including the American International School of Kingston, Rosseau Primary School, Portmore Missionary Preparatory School, Excelsior Community College, Godfrey Stewart High School and Cornwall College.
PROMOTING JA’S CULTURE
In addition to Ardenne’s accomplishments, the JCDC celebrated its 60th anniversary, which gave this year’s award ceremony even more significance. The Marcus Garvey Awards have been an integral part of the commission’s efforts to preserve and promote Jamaica’s rich cultural legacy for the past 60 years.
Olivia Babsy Grange, minister of sports, culture, entertainment, and gender affairs, presented the award to Ardenne High School.
During the award ceremony, the minister commended Ardenne High’s extraordinary commitment to the performing arts. She also spoke on the impact of the arts and how they contribute to the nation’s cultural identity.
“We can be proud of this institution, we can be proud of our people because the performing arts is an area where it allows expression and it allows people to use it as social intervention tool … it creates community cohesion, it creates pride, it creates a feeling of belonging, and it also creates a feeling of achievement,” she said.
JCDC’s director of arts development and training, Andrew Brodber, revealed that this year’s competition has improved in comparison to last year’s, and that now that the pandemic has come to an end, he is seeing more audiences and people of all ages participating in the competition.
He hailed the role the JCDC has played in the preservation of Jamaican culture.
“Without [the] JCDC, I believe the Jamaican identity, us as a people, the craft, various areas of the arts and the particular cultural form, those things that cause us to be Jamaican would be lost forever. If it isn’t the work of the JCDC then we would have lost all the performing arts especially traditional folk … .”
The JCDC Marcus Garvey Award event this year highlighted the extraordinary abilities of both the young and elderly in Jamaican schools and communities.