Fellow Ministers and Members of Parliament,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today is truly a landmark day, the start of something very special.
As our culture and identity have grown, especially during these last 50 years of Independence, so too has our wish to express that culture at its possible best.
In our Bahamas, we know that we are truly blessed with talent in abundance.
In fact, we have seen our sports heroes transformed into super world-class athletes, given proper training and investment.
And so it has been a long-cherished ambition here to establish a school to train people for careers in the performing arts.
Today we plant the seeds of that ambition.
Minister Hanna-Martin continues to speak passionately about the transformative effect that the arts and culture can have on young people.
Minister Halkitis provided context with his observations about the creative economy, and Minister Bowleg’s emphasis on the potential for creative and cultural development, together all offered a glimpse of how what a potentially transformative effect this investment can have.
I go further.
I believe that in developing and promoting the creative skills and talents of our people, we are developing a nation better fit and able both to overcome the challenges, and to seize the opportunities of our time.
The arts in general, and the performing arts in particular, have the power to help us imagine better possibilities for our ourselves and our world.
They have the power to help us resolve our conflicts, to solve problems, and to alleviate boredom.
I believe that this new Creative and Performing Arts School will have a profoundly positive effect on our country.
Let us all work together to help make it both a reality, and a success.
We begin to plant these seeds today, so that giant trees may grow long into the future.
And we do so in the knowledge that it is those who come after us who will be the ones to enjoy the shade.
Let’s keep planting in a way that they may forever celebrate the roots.
My thanks to Ian Poitier, Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin and all those who will make CAPAS a success.
Good afternoon.
