Andrea Dempster-Chung is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the registered non-profit organisation Kingston Creative, which began in February 2017.

It now has over 100 volunteers and staff. Kingston Creative serves the creatives, artists and communities of downtown Kingston.

Speaking with Our Today, Dempster-Chung said: “Kingston Creative was started to transform downtown Kingston through murals and to create an arts district that is powered by technology.

“It would have been impossible to make the progress that has been made to date without the support and contribution of the Ministry of Culture, The Ministry of Tourism, The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and the Mayor of Kingston.

“We aim to position Kingston as an urban destination for tourists and make Kingston the capital of culture. Our organisation would like to play a part in regenerating towns which sees  people employed who are creative. It is a contribution to the development of downtown Kingston. We would like to see the employment of people in the area who are creative.

Only last week, downtown Kingston, the capital of Jamaica was elected World Best Creative Destination by the jury of the 9th Creative Tourism Awards, made up of international experts in tourism marketing and creative economy, who had the difficult task of selecting the winners among 152 applications, from 28 countries.

The award was delivered to Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, by Caroline Couret, Director of the Creative Tourism Network, on behalf of the International Committee at ITB Berlin, Germany.

 It was subsequently presented to the Co-founder and Executive Director of Kingston Creative, Andrea Dempster Chung at the Houses of Parliament in Downtown Kingston.

Dempster-Chung added that Kingston Creative is a pilot project which she hopes can be replicated across other parts of Jamaica where there are cities particularly Falmouth and Montego Bay. There are plans to do so in Black River.

Ultimately she would like to see creative cities across the Caribbean.

“The main goal has to be no poverty. Creatives must earn a living. This directly impacts poverty levels in the country. We must connect their talent into a way for them to earn so they can support their families and communities,” said Dempster-Chung