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Artistry was founded in 2003 to develop and deliver arts and media projects to educate, empower and entertain diverse audiences.
Artistry's signature event is the award winning International Black Media Festival. The festival is a celebration of independent cinema, art, music, literature taking place in the historic city of Oxford. In 2004 the festival was recognised by HRH the Queen of England for outstanding contribution to media services.
Artistry also delivers Breaking the Illusions: a short course on the history of African-American and Black British cinema.
Artistry is a social enterprise company limited by guarantee.
Patrons PROFESSOR REX NETTLEFORD OM. OJ Professor Rex Milton Nettleford O.M, O.J the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UUWI), is a graduated from the University of the West Indies with History (Hons.) and a Rhode Scholar from Oxford University with postgraduate studies in Politics. He is the founder, artistic director and principal choreographer of the internationally acclaimed National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) of Jamaica. He is a Distinguished Fellow in the UWI School of Graduate Studies and an Honorary (Life) Fellow of the Centre for Caribbean Thought. He is the Cultural Adviser to the Prime Minister, member of the Inter-American Committee on Culture, founding governor of the Canada-based International Development Research Centre, and has acted as expert/consultant to the government of Ghana, FESTAC, CARIFESTA and UNESCO. Professor Nettleford is a radio and television commentator and has lectured in many countries including India, the Philippines and Israel. He is the author of Manley and the New Jamaica, The African Connexion, In Our Heritage and Caribbean Cultural Identity - the case of Jamaica. Professor Nettleford is the recipient of Jamaica's Order of Merit, the gold Musgrave Medal, the Pelican Award from the U.W.I. guild of graduates, an honorary doctor of Humane letters from the University of Hartford and the Living Legend Award from the Atlantic Black Arts Festival. In 2003, The Rhodes Trust of Oxford established the Rex Nettleford Prize in Cultural Studies.
ERICA WILLIAMS CONNELL
The daughter of Eric Williams, Trinidad and Tobago's late first Prime Minister and noted historian, Mrs. Connell was educated in her native land, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as in England and Switzerland.
Despite employment in other fields, and for the last 25 years since her father's death, she has spearheaded the establishment of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago campus.
The Collection, Williams' library and archives, was inaugurated in 1998 by former US Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell. It was named to UNESCO'S Memory of the World Register in 1999 and is regularly featured on the itinerary of important visitors to Trinidad and Tobago such as Rudolph Giuliani and Nobel Laureates (Economics) Amartya Sen and Harry Markowitz.
Mrs. Connell resides in Miami but remains fully involved in institutionalizing the numerous projects that continue to drive the Collection's objectives, among them: a three-time award-winning Newsletter which she produces; an Oral History Project; the periodic staging of several conferences and lectures on Eric Williams (1984 Rockefeller Conference and Study Centre/Boston University, 1996 University of the West Indies/Harvard University, 2000 Wellesley College, 2002 New York Public Library's Schomburg Center; the annual Florida International University Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture, now in its eighth year).
With former US Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell, Mrs. Connell has shared the podium at the inauguration of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection as well as at the launch of a stamp to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago's Independence – featuring Ambassador Peter Harborne, British representative to Trinidad and Tobago.
Williams-Connell's writings/lectures have appeared in several books – Eric E. Williams Speaks – edited by Prof. Selwyn R. Cudjoe, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, distributed by the University of Massachusetts Press; Preface to the 2004 reissue of The Economic Future of the Caribbean – edited by Eric E. Williams and E. Franklin Frazier, published by The Majority Press. Another Preface will appear in the Eric Williams Schomburg conference proceedings likely to be published by University Press of Florida. She has also authored two entries for the Encyclopedia of African American History and Culture.
Mrs. Connell devotes considerable time to charitable endeavours in Trinidad and Tobago and has volunteered for a number of years and in the following areas with the St. Jude's Reform School for Girls there: fundraising; soliciting and implementing staff training and behaviour modification strategies for both employees and children; negotiations re the establishment of a halfway house and a football programme; extracurricular transition course from facility to workplace; employment internships; resident computer access, etc.
DAME JOCELYN BARROW DBE Dame Jocelyn was a founding member and General Secretary of CARD (Campaign Against Racial Discrimination), the organisation responsible for the Race Relations legislation of 1968. As a senior teacher, and later as a teacher-trainer, at Furzedown College and at the Institute of Education London University in the '60s, she pioneered the introduction of multi-cultural education, stressing the needs of the various ethnic groups in the UK. She was the first black woman Governor of the BBC and Founder and Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Council. Her equal opportunities and educational expertise is reflected in her many Government appointments to a variety of organisations and statutory bodies. Governor of the Commonwealth Institute for eight years, Council Member of Goldsmith's College, University of London, Vice-president of the United Nations Association in the UK and Northern Ireland and Trustee to the Irene Taylor Trust providing Music in Prisons. She is National Vice-President of the Townswomen's Guild and was instrumental in the establishment of the North Atlantic Slavery Gallery and the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. She was a Trustee of the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside and a Governor of the British Film Institute. In 1972 she was awarded the OBE for work in the field of education and community relations. In 1992 she received the DBE for her work in broadcasting and her contribution to the work of the European Union as the UK Member of the Social Economic Committee.
PROFESSOR AUDREY MULLENDER FRSA PhD
Professor Audrey Mullender, FRSA, AcSS, BA, MA, PhD, CQSW, Principal of Ruskin College Oxford since 1st April 2004. She is simultaneously Professor of Social Work at the University of Warwick. She is a member of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and Vice-Chair of the Social Policy and Social Work Sub-Panel in the Research Assessment Exercise. Professor Mullender has published over a million words, including 19 books. Her writing has always included a commitment to anti-racism in education, policy and practice.
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