Art, Architecture Students Awarded PanJam CB Facey Foundation Scholarships
This will be a worry-free academic year for 38-year-old Kevin McIntyre of Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, and seven other tertiary students who were recently presented with full tuition scholarships from the PanJam CB Facey Foundation (CBFF).
At the presentation ceremony, held in the boardroom of PanJam Investment Limited, executive chairman Stephen Facey engaged the chosen eight in a profound discussion about their crafts and passions.
“I come from a family of creatives; my father was a shoemaker, my uncle is a painter. I have been around people creating all my life, so it became a part of me. I slipped into painting inadvertently. But making and creating is more than just painting, it is an entrepreneurial drive,” explained McIntyre, a final year painting major.
The young man continued to reflect on his selected craft and his strategic move to delve into painting.
“Painting is the avenue that will get me where I want to be. It is not by chance that I am doing painting; it is a calculated effort,” he stated.
McIntyre’s skills have been featured in the Mount Plenty Art Summer Camp, facilitated by PanJam CB Facey Foundation, in St Ann. Since 2015, he has directed the 50-plus students in the art making process, which this year took on the themes “Our Sacred Bodies” and “Rise Up”.
In addition to the luncheon, hosted in the boardroom of PanJam Investment Limited on Wednesday, November 29, McIntyre and the other scholars — final-year students at Edna Manley Desanna Watson and Achim Clunis; and master’s students at the Caribbean School of Architecture at the University of Technology, Jamaica Omar Lewis, Dewayne Webb, Sana Williams, Jheanine Wiggan, and Neville Plumber — were treated to a tour of the largest corporate art collection in Jamaica.
Led by trustee and patron of CB Facey Foundation, Valerie Facey, the group saw pieces, ranging from paintings, sculptures, prints, batiks and mosaics, from Greg Bailey, Barrington Watson, Laura Facey Cooper, Edna Manley, et al. For Desanna Watson, the art tour resonated as her painting studies go much deeper than the showcasing of her talent.
“Even though I am doing painting at Edna Manley, what I really want to pursue is art conservation. The reason for that is we don’t really have a culture in Jamaica of preservation or conservation of art. And as much as I love art, I think I want to do more than just create art. I also want to conserve it, as I believe the next generation will appreciate that,” Watson stated.
Her declaration was greeted with a strong approval from Valerie Facey, wife of the late Maurice Facey, who founded the PanJam Group of Companies. Twenty-three-year-old Omar Lewis, who is in the second year of his master’s programme, said the scholarship has eased his financial worries.
“Recently, my mom and dad were hospitalised due to a lupus flare and a stroke, respectively, so the scholarship will really help with initial tuition expenses. And so the money I earn otherwise will be contributed to their medical expenses,” he stated.
He can now concentrate on completing his thesis on spontaneous urban placement.
“What that means is looking at spaces within the corporate area where people (the public) appropriate space, including the waterfront downtown and 41 Fleet Street, which is an initial site for Paint Jamaica. I am using Football Factory as an anti-thesis to compare the results,” explained Lewis.
His thesis posits that Jamaicans appropriate space spontaneously for sport. For instance, in certain communities a streetway can be used for football or cricket.
“It is just that regular colloquialism of ‘I’ll see you pon the corna’. That corner is a special place for us. It is something that is intrinsic and cultural, therefore, I’ll be looking at the phenomena of those places and why those places work for and reflect our unique Jamaican energy,” Lewis stated.
PanJam CB Facey Foundation is the charitable arm of the PanJam Investment Limited.
