Paris, France 4 April 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, is chairing the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations at the 206th Session of the powerful UNESCO Executive Board meeting underway in Paris, France.

The Committee on Conventions and Recommendations is considering, among other matters:

• the Protection and Promotion of Museums and Collections, their Diversity and their Role in Society;
• the Preservation of, and Access to, Documentary Heritage, including in Digital Form; and 
• the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace.

Minister Grange is also participating in meetings of the UNESCO Executive Board which is considering the programme of work and budget for UNESCO.

While in Paris, Minister Grange will pay a courtesy call on the UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, as well as chair a meeting of Caricom members currently serving on the Executive Board. 

The 206th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board runs from April 3 to 17.

Kingston, March 19 – The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, has contributed 3.5 million dollars to Netball Jamaica to help send the Sunshine Girls to the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool, England.

The Minister, the Honourable Olivia Grange presented the cheque to Tricia Robinson, 1st Vice President of Netball Jamaica today.

“I am happy to present this cheque of 3.5 million dollars to Netball Jamaica which will be of great assistance as you prepare for the World Cup. Jamaica is fortunate. This is the year of the girls, our Sunshine Girls are going to England in July and our Reggae Girls to France in June. We are looking for great things,“

Minister Grange said.

The Sunshine Girls who are ranked third in the world have qualified for the World Cup every year since 2015.

The Ministry’s contribution to the Sunshine Girls is being provided through the Sports Development Foundation.

Kingston 27 January 2019 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says Jamaica endorses the “Year of Return, Ghana 2019”.

The “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” is an initiative of the Government of the Republic of Ghana which is intended to encourage people of African descent to visit Africa.

Speaking at the Caribbean launch of the Year of Return in Kingston on Sunday (today), Minister Grange said:

“Jamaica looks forward to a successful Year of Return and we will work with Ghana towards a successful year.  Jamaica observes the International Decade of People of African Descent and so it is all very timely that we work together.  

“We are connected. Ghana was a major hub for the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and we are happy that you have opened the door this year for people in the African Diaspora to return.”

“And as Jamaicans, we’re proud to see that our Reggae music will form the soundtrack for the Year of Return.”

The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Ghana, Her Excellency Catherine Afeku said it was important to begin the Year of Return programme for the Caribbean in Jamaica.

Minister Afeku said:

“This is the Maroon country where liberation struggles started even before Independence.  So we started here for symbolism.  We want to invite you home, but we want to invite you coming back with that sense of strength that you are a descendant that survived.”

Minister Afeku said the Year of Return was an opportunity to highlight the strength of African peoples who survived the transatlantic slave trade.

According to her, “We have scientists who are the descendants of slaves, we have astronauts who are descendants of slaves.  We have the Bob Marleys who are the descendants of slaves.  We have the Usain Bolts who are the descendants of slaves.  That is a positive story.”

The Ghanaian Minister is encouraging Jamaicans to make a pilgrimage to Africa, beginning with her country, even once in their lifetime.

“Ghana is opening its arms.  Ghana is opening its doors.  We want you to come and take a heritage that belongs to you.  So it is not a favour, it is yours.  We are here to assure you that you can make a home on the continent starting with Ghana,” said Minister Afeku.

Minister Grange said consideration is being given for direct flights between Jamaica and Ghana in support of the Year of Return initiative.

The year-long celebrations include music and food festivals, summits, investment fora and product exhibitions.

Kingston, November 14 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, and the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, the Honourable Audley Shaw have launched the Women’s Entrepreneurship Support Project to encourage and assist women to start and run successful businesses. 

The project is a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries in November 2017. 

Speaking at the launch function for the Women’s Entrepreneurship Support Project on Tuesday, Minister Grange said, “We are certain that women can be a catalyst for large-scale economic growth and the creation of prosperity — if they get a little support.” 

She said that although reports show that Jamaica has the highest proportion of women managers anywhere in the world, there are still too few women owners of businesses. 

“We need to change all of that and the MOU between both our ministries is strengthening and synchronising strategies that promote and encourage women’s involvement in entrepreneurship.  We aim to increase the number of women owners in the local business sector.  And we are providing tangible support through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Support Project,” Minister Grange said. 

The project will be implemented over three years and will among other things build the technical capacity, financial literacy and social capital of women entrepreneurs operating micro or small enterprises and give women entrepreneurs the knowledge and empowerment opportunities to scale up their businesses.

According to Minister Grange, funding is a major component of the project and each year women-led businesses will be targeted for support. 

Four female entrepreneurs were presented with cheques totalling one million dollars and Minister Shaw gave a commitment that another ten will receive funding also by the end of the year. 

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Support Project was launched as part of activities to commemorate Global Entrepreneurship Week being observed locally under the theme ‘Minimising Barriers + Maximising Inclusion’.

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Kingston, October 3 – The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, through the Sport Development Foundation has contributed Two Million Dollars to Netball Jamaica towards the staging of the Sunshine Series which begins at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday, October 7.

Minister Grange made the cheque presentation at a breakfast she hosted for Netball Jamaica and Sponsor representatives today (Wednesday). 

“I regret that because of duties overseas I will miss most of the Series but I do hope to attend one or two of the matches on my return to Jamaica. But I am leaving with Netball Jamaica a nice little gift as I depart – Two Million Dollars - provided by the Sports Development Foundation,” the Sport Minister said.

The Minister said also, “The Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport has underwritten the cost for the entertainment package for the Half Time Shows at all of the matches.”

Minister Grange wished Netball Jamaica a successful Series and thanked the sponsors.

“All of Jamaica is proud of the Sunshine Girls who are showing more and more class by their recent performances and more and more we are convinced that world championship for them is just a few passes away,”

Minister Grange said.

The Series will see the Sunshine Girls playing against the English Roses and Trinidad and Tobago’s Calypso Girls.

Minister Grange left the island today for Paris where she will attend the 205th Session of the UNESCO Executive Board.

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Kingston, September 18 - The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport said this afternoon that she was deeply saddened by the death of renowned Jamaican Restaurateur, Minion Phillips, who was known to all as “Sister Minnie”.

Minister Grange said, “Sister Minnie was a strong Jamaica Rasta woman who was an expert at what she did and who showed great care for the people around her, not just for her immediate family.

“My sympathy goes out to Member of Parliament, Mikhail Phillips, her son and her other children and to Opposition Leader, Dr. Peter Phillips, her former husband.” 

Miss Grange also recalled that Sister Minnie, who she also described as a cultural pioneer had, “through the assistance of the Jamaican and Ghanaian governments returned to Ghana the remains of one of the former slaves, Lady Crystal, who had been brought to Jamaica, and Samuel Carson, an American whose remains were discovered by a group in New York.”

Minion Phillips, who died yesterday, was the proprietor of Kingston's first 'Ital' restaurant, a popular establishment for Rastafarians, musicians and visitors seeking a unique gastronomic experience.

The restaurant was built of lumber, bamboo and thatch, which surprised many by surviving Hurricane Gilbert completely intact, protected by its traditional 8-sided design and structure.

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Kingston, September 18, 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says that “Jamaica is strongly focused on establishing a National Register of Cultural Heritage Places and Objects through amendments to the Jamaica National Heritage Act.” 

Minister Grange was addressing the Opening Ceremony of a three-day workshop on Effective Heritage Inventories and National Registers organised by the Ministry in partnership with the Organisation of American States (OAS) at the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites on Tuesday (September 18). 

Minister Grange said that the workshop is an outcome of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the OAS to execute a project titled ‘Enhancing the Framework for the Development of a Heritage Economy in the Caribbean’. The project will train artisans and bring to the forefront the significant socio-economic potential of Jamaica’s cultural heritage. 

“The focus of this workshop is to review and enhance where they already exist, registers of heritage places. A National Register of Heritage Places is a list of sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical value,”

the Minister said. 

According to the Minister, the Registry will be developed through the use of ARCHES, an open-source, geospatially-enabled software platform for cultural heritage inventory and management.

“We hope that this workshop and the software that will be used across the Region will help to build capacity in our culture agencies and provide authentic, heritage experiences that are economically viable and sustainable. 

“Cultural heritage tourism is valued at US$1 billion globally and is said to be responsible for more than 75 million jobs in the Asia Pacific region alone,” Minister Grange said. 

The Culture Minister said also that another main component of the project is its focus on cultural communities such as the Maroons, Rastafari and Revivalists which contribute immensely to brand Jamaica. 

This project is being implemented in Barbados, Jamaica and The Bahamas.

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Kingston, 17 August 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced that the Government of Jamaica has executed compulsory acquisition of the boyhood home of National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey in St Ann’s Bay.

In her address at the annual UNIA Marcus Garvey Awards this (Friday) evening — on the 131st anniversary of the National Hero’s birth — Minister Grange said the Commissioner of Lands has been given ministerial direction to take possession of the property.

Minister Grange said this development “clears the way for the establishment of the proposed living history museum in honour of the National Hero.”

The property, located at 32 Market Street in St Ann, has long been earmarked as the site for the Garvey Museum.  The former Prime Minister, Mr Bruce Golding, broke ground for the construction of the museum in 2011.  However, construction has been delayed as the Government negotiated with the occupants (now owners) of the property and has been assisting them to find alternative accommodations.

Minister Grange said it was time to get on with the project:

“For many years, we have been talking among each other, researching current ownership and announcing every year our intention to take over that home and convert it into a museum and centre for reflection on the works of our Hero.  We have talked for a long time. We have negotiated for a long time.  Now it’s time for action.  We have acted through the governance process of compulsory acquisition to take over that location and start the work to convert it into the haven it must be in the Garden Parish of St. Ann.”

Minister Grange says that in keeping with the commitment given by the former Prime Minister to assist the occupants to find alternative accommodations, the Government will be taking action to relocate them to property that has been identified.

“I have been working closely with the Member of Parliament and the Housing Agency of Jamaica to finalise the relocation.  We are showing goodwill and I anticipate full co-operation as we move ahead with establishing this important national monument,” said Minister Grange.

The technical designs have been completed and funding sourced for the construction of the museum.  Minister Grange has instructed the Jamaica National Heritage Trust — which is leading the development of the museum — to “move swiftly to take possession of the property, acquire all outstanding approvals and to begin construction before the end of the year.”

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Kingston – January 12 - The first set of coaches being provided to Jamaica by the People’s Republic of China for seven sports under a three-year technical agreement signed between the two countries last year, arrived in Kingston yesterday afternoon (January 11).

Kingston, December 7 - The Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport has told the Argentinian Ambassador to Jamaica, His Excellency Ariel Fernandez, that Jamaica is looking forward to building cooperation with Argentina in areas such as the exchange of professionals, specialists, researchers, students and creators in the different fields of culture and art, as well as in tangible and intangible cultural heritage.