Culture Passport Programme Expanded

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has announced an expansion of the Culture Passport programme which enables holders to access some of Jamaica’s prominent heritage sites and cultural events free of charge or at a reduced cost.

The Minister was speaking at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s Culture Clubs Annual National Conference in Mandeville at the Golf View Hotel yesterday (Tuesday).

Minister Grange said, “through the support of the CHASE FUND, 50,000 culture passports will be produced for circulation over the next two years beginning in the first term of the upcoming academic year.”

The culture passport programme works in tandem with the Culture Club movement which Minister Grange said was “started in 2009 to preserve Jamaican culture and heritage, as well as to provide an avenue for young people to channel their creative energies.”

Minister Grange also said that a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed yesterday between the Ministry and the JCDC “will further expand the reach of the programme to include community based organisations, churches, senior citizens associations, persons with disabilities and other special interest groups.”

There are currently over 400 Culture Clubs with over 4,000 members island-wide.

The Culture Passport programme was designed to strengthen the work of Culture Clubs by giving holders the opportunity to visit heritage sites.

Included in the sites that can be accessed by Culture Passport holders are: Fort Charles, Devon House, Holywell, The Seville Heritage Park, Liberty Hall, The National Gallery of Jamaica, The National Museum of Jamaica, the Jamaica Music Museum, Accompong and Moore Town.

All members of Culture Clubs managed by the JCDC are eligible to get a culture passport once the names and passport size photographs of members are submitted to any JCDC parish office.