M&C Marketing Manager Marella Devaux handing over cheque to CDF head, Petrus Compton.
With just one week to go before the official launching of this year’s National Arts Festival’s “ARTreach”, the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) has received its first sponsor cheque of $10, 000.
At the handing-over ceremony on Wednesday, Chairman and Acting Executive Director of CDF Petrus Compton welcomed the monetary support which came from the M&C Group of Companies. Compton described the company as “old friends” with the “same good ideas” as CDF.
The National Arts Festival replaced the M&C Fine Arts Awards when it ended in 2004 after a 25-year run.
Compton recalled the M&C Fine Arts Awards was a platform for artistes from all genres to showcase their craft.
“In memory of those who made it what it was, we decided that we had to elevate it to a level that the country could be proud of,” Compton explained. “And so we reinvented the National Arts Festival and we are beginning to make it a truly national activity.”
Since the re-branding the National Arts Festival, CDF has invited different communities outside of Castries and Gros Islet to participate, as a way of inculcating the arts into every community around the island.
“Thanks to that inspiration, that vision that came from M&C and Fred Devaux, in particular. We are pleased that they are the first to be here with us to indicate to the commercial sector that there is a tremendous value in supporting arts and culture,” Compton added.
He lauded the management of M&C for interest in the arts, telling them, “You support young people, you support positivity, and you support an intervention that takes young people from the negativity that we complain about so much into a positive creative lifestyle.”
Group Marketing Manager at M&C Marella Devaux, who addressed the ceremony, said: “This is something that’s near and dear to M&C’s heart.”
“We see it as money well spent as there is so much to gather from the arts,” Devaux noted.