"Boots" Walks On

Petrus Compton (rt) hands a farewell token to Kennedy 'Boots' Samuel

Press Release from the CDF - where I now work - our Executive Director ends his time with the organization as of the 31st December 2013 - wish him well and success in all his future endevours

"Very few call him Kennedy, his given name, preferring the familiar and folksy “Boots”. But whatever the name by which he was called, everyone recognized him as the face of the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) and a champion of arts and culture in Saint Lucia and the OECS.

On Friday20th December 2013, Chairman of CDF Petrus Compton announced to CDF’s management and staff that the organization’s most easily recognizable face was moving on. Describing the moment as “painful”, the Chairman acknowledged that Boots had navigated the organization through difficult times, in the face of many challenges and thanked him on behalf of the CDF, artistes and culture practitioners and the Saint Lucian community in general.

“Boots” came to CDF from his former position as Executive Director of the Folk Research Center (FRC) with a strong background in traditional culture research and theatre. He was a well known figure in the theatre renaissance of the 1980s that briefly threatened to recall the glory days of the sixties, when Saint Lucia held forth as a vibrant hub for theatre and the performing arts in general.

Notwithstanding the difficult conditions under which performing artists were expected to practice their craft in those days, “Boots” was a significant force, along with persons like Kendel Hippolyte, George “Fish” Alphonse, Hayden Forde, deceased Lucia Peters and a few others, who strove to ensure that Saint Lucian theatre remained alive.

Throughout his tenure with the CDF “Boots” brought his trademark passion and tenacity to everything that he did, constantly and vocally challenging what he saw as a tendency to impose upon us a notion of “modernity” that rejected things “lucian” as valueless. He was a fighter for authenticity and relentlessly sought to ensure that a Saint Lucian flavor was at the heart of national events and celebrations.

Chairman Petrus Compton challenged “Boots” to look upon his departure from the CDF as an opportunity to re-focus and to set sights upon new and more compelling vistas, and he assured the gathering that the CDF would continue to make use of the talents and experience that “Boots” had accumulated over the years, in its programming.

'Boots' says a few words of farewell to the Board and Staff of CDF

“Boots” in turn, expressed deep appreciation for the opportunity he had to serve the arts and culture from within the CDF and thanked the staff and the Board for its support to him throughout his tenure. He expressed deep confidence in and support for the new direction that the organization had taken and exhorted management and staff to continue to work diligently along with the Board to realize the important mandate which the CDF was charged with pursuing.

The CDF is expected to intensify its search for a suitable candidate to fill the shoes left vacant as “Boots” walks on."

CDF Rebranded - More Than Just a New Image

What have I been up to the past few months? Well, I joined the staff of our National cultural organization the Cultural Development Foundation as the Director of Business Development and Marketing - it's been a busy, busy time as the organization grapples with a complete restructure and rebranding while keeping up with ongoing work and designing new programmes and projects...so far it is great! I may look a bit tired now n then, but it's that 'good tired' when you know you've been doing some good work! So, here's our first press release about our changes:

The Cultural Development Foundation exists in a competitive world and competes daily- for people’s time and attention, for funding, sponsorship and recognition: the new brand and new structure have been designed to re-align the work of CDF with the contemporary needs of Saint Lucia’s emerging arts and culture sector in a world where the Creative Industries are becoming major contributors to economies and societies.

Our public value proposition – the value that we create, that in effect justifies public and private investment and support for what we do – has to be relevant and cutting edge: taking into account our rich past while openly and actively embracing the future.

That value has many different facets – there is the historical social value that CDF creates by caring for the Nation’s most significant traditions, keeping them full of life for future generations; the value created as an institution – represented by the extent to which we are trusted and accountable; the value we create in providing the means for our clients, the arts and culture practitioners, to be self-sustaining, profitable enterprises and pioneering, ground-breaking artists garnering world renown for not just themselves, but Saint Lucia; The value CDF creates  for the consumers – developing a rich quality of life for Saint Lucians full of our expressions of self, building Nationhood, building international recognition, fuelling the love of Saint Lucia by locals and visitors alike.

The road to the re-branding and re-structuring of the Cultural Development Foundation began with a  ‘public value’ exercise that engaged our customers in the development of a new strategy that would refine, redefine and better articulate our core values, our core purpose, the core need. The result has been a new identity, new management structure and redirection of focus for the work of the organization. This new visual image, management structure and direction were unveiled at the National Cultural Centre on Wednesday 13th November 2013.

 “A key consideration for CDF in the design of its new visual image was to identify and communicate more effectively CDF’s distinctive business model,” says Kennedy Samuel, Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation.

In addition to managing the visual image change and creating an identity, CDF worked with its stakeholders and Darwin Guard of BOLD Ink to produce a tagline to better state the benefit of the company’s unique structure and proposition:  ‘Creativity, Culture, Community’ now accompanies the institution’s name.

“The Saint Lucian personality is the sum of six inescapable aspects. A sense of community emerging out of different and distinctly unique cultural communities; Exuberant festivals and celebrations given potency by our inbred creativity; a thriving culture flavoured by a multiplicity of influences.” said Guard.

Importantly – indeed, fundamentally for this project the considerations were a lot less about the design, and more about the public value offer, especially in challenging economic times; 

“The company-wide realignment “… aims to focus, improve and expand our current operations and to carve out a distinctive niche for ourselves within this new landscape.” said Petrus Compton, Chairman of the CDF. “We also believe this move will increase efficiency, accommodate our planned program growth, and facilitate new development activity.”

Now that the CDF has completed the public launch, the work of implementing the changes has just begun: The brand work has given us a stronger core organisational sense of purpose, the reorganization has brought in a wealth of new skills and a structure designed with efficiency and efficacy in mind.  The new structure incorporates departments: Events and Production; Business Development and Marketing; Training, Promotion and Development; Operations; and a Finance Department.

In the coming months, the organization will be actively reaching out and inviting all stakeholders to re-engage with the Cultural Development Foundation and help build a new era for the Arts and Culture in Saint Lucia

Contact the CDF at info@cdfstlucia.org ; Tel 452 1859 ;  visit our website at www.cdfstlucia.org ; join us on facebook at www.facebook.com/Cultural.Development.Foundation and www.facebook.com/artreachsaintlucia

 

The New Team