Everybody knows that Jamaica is a hotbed of talented artists, evidenced by the never ending string of talented musicians the island continues to produce. Less known is the impressive number of internationally successful visual and performing artists, who at some point have studied or taught at the Caribbean’s most prestigious institution, the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston.
The importance of culture in a nation’s development was always known to Jamaicas leaders and in 1939, Norman Manley stated: “National culture is a national consciousness reflected in the painting of pictures of our own mountains and our own women-folk, in building those houses that are most suitable for us to live in, in writing plays of our adventures and poetry of our wisdom, finding ourselves in the wrestle with our own problems…...around our very eyes are stirring the first shoots of a deeply felt national artistic and intellectual life.”
Born in England to a British father and a Jamaican mother in 1900, Edna Swithenbank married Norman Manley and moved to Jamaica in 1922. The marriage was blessed with two sons, Michael, who was to become a union activist and eventually Prime Minister of Jamaica, and Douglas, a sociologist and minister in his brother’s government.
When her husband, Norman Manley, became leader of the People’s National Party in the wake of the 1938 worker uprising, Edna evolved into a public figure as a Jamaican artist and a promoter of culture. Promoting Jamaican literary culture
through her editing work for the journal ‘Focus’ in the 1940s and 50s, the social activist also contributed to the local art scene as a symbolist sculptor. An artist for much of her life, Manley also taught at the Jamaica School of Art.
The school started as a workshop conducted by Manley in the 1940’s at the Junior Centre of the Institute of Jamaica, and was given full-time status with a Board of Management, its own Charter and its own premises at 4 Central Avenue in Kingston in 1950.
The next twenty years brought about new departments and an increased student population, which lead to the school being split between two locations. While the centre of three dimensional studies was based at 4 Central Avenue, the centre for two dimensional studies was located at 11 North Street. Master painter Cecil Cooper, ceramist Gene Pearson and sculptor Christopher Gonzalez are just a small fraction of great artists who have wandered the halls of the famous institution.
In 1976, the Government of Jamaica amalgamated all Schools of the Arts into one campus, which was designated the Inter-American Centre of Caribbean Cultural Development by the Organization of the American States (OAS). With the mandate to enrich the aesthetic sensibilities of the entire English-speaking Caribbean, the school earned recognition as a regional cultural resource institution in 1983.
The school was reclassified as a tertiary institution and renamed the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) in 1995, leading to the consolidation of the College under one administrative structure. Today, the College has a population of 1200 full-time and part-time students, and an academic staff of 137 highly qualified lecturers.
Study programmes at the School of Visual Arts include Bachelors Degrees in Fine Arts and Art Education as well as Diplomas in Fine Arts and Art Education. Areas of study are painting, sculpture, printmaking, jewellery, ceramics, textiles and visual communications.
The School of Dance was founded in 1970 by members of the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) and trains performers and teachers in a wide variety of international and Caribbean dance forms, theatre education and production. Programs include a Bachelors of Arts in General Arts and several Diplomas and Certificates. Recently crowned Miss Jamaica World, Yendi Phillips, studied here.
Emerging in 1969 as a part-time training ground, the School of Drama operated under the umbrella of the Little Theatre Movement and became a full-time institution
within the Edna Manley College in 1975. Programs include a Bachelors of Arts in General Arts and several diploma and certificate courses.
Founded in 1961, the School of Music has established a reputation of international standards and attracts students and teachers from around the world, including the Caribbean, North America, Europe and the Far East. The School of Music
department offers a Bachelors of Arts in General Arts and several diploma and certificate courses, and the high standards of it’s teachings were again demonstrated by the engagement of celebrated bass singer Sir Willard White to the world-wide opera stages.
Managed by a small cadre of educators and overseen by a lecturer who ensures the implementation of the programs as they relate to the specific art forms, the Department of Education and Liberal Studies serves both, students and faculty in all four schools pursuing a Degree and Diploma in Teacher Education with its Joint Board of Teacher Education Programme (JBTE).
In addition, the School of Continuing Studies offers part-time and leisure courses in painting, photography, jewellery, dance, music and drama. Visual arts, music and drama classes are offered for children between 6 and 18 years and each summer, an integrated Arts Programme is provided for children 4 years to 11 years (Kaleidoscope), teenagers 12 years to 18 years (Artscope) and adults (over 18 years).
The school is particularly proud of its collaboration with overseas institutions such as the Ohio State University and the SUNY Brockport Exchange Programme which was introduced in 1986 to benefit the students of the School of Dance.
For entry requirements and further information please contact: The Registry, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, 1 Arthur Wint Drive, Kingston 5. Tel: 960-6171/ 920-7400/ 929-2350-2 E-mail: emcregistry@hotmail.com, or visit www.emc.edu.jm.
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