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KINGSTON, Jamaica (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the five years Alvin McGowan has owned Annali’s, a restaurant in downtown Kingston, he has never seen so many people walking around casually and unafraid - a remarkable sight given the area’s reputation as unsafe and rundown.
“The stigma of downtown at one time, the people were a bit afraid. But now it is different because of the murals on the walls,” McGowan, 55, said.
Vibrant, poignant murals have been appearing on the walls of Jamaica’s capital as part of Paint the City, a project by the nonprofit Kingston Creative to revive the city’s neglected downtown district and support the local arts community.
In the five years Alvin McGowan has owned Annali's, a restaurant in downtown Kingston, he has never seen so many people walking around casually and unafraid - a remarkable sight given the area's reputation as unsafe and rundown.
Jamaica's creative sector, which had begun to show many 'green shoots' prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, has been particularly hard hit but it is forging ahead in novel ways.
The coworking space organised by Kingston Creative to provide creatives physical access to hot-desks, meeting rooms, offices, and podcasting, dance and digital studios.
The creative community has received a breakthrough following on the forging of a three-year technical agreement between Kingston Creative Limited and IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the Inter-American Development Bank.
The collaboration, which will fast track social and economic transformation through the merger of creativity, culture and technology will support 1,500 entrepreneurs and creative enterprises, notably 300 creative entrepreneurs based in downtown Kingston.
Additionally, 60 creative businesses will benefit from the integration of new technologies in their business models and 25 entrepreneurs will be connected to new international markets and opportunities.