William Clarke, president of the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited. - File

Banker William 'Bill' Clarke is advocating a new approach to art school that focusses on developing the artist's entrepreneurial skills, saying it was time to move visual arts from the fringes into the mainstream economy.

"In today's reality, we need art professionals who are dedicated to their genre, and also have a pragmatic approach to business," said Clarke, president of Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica.

"The educational system must not only train our artists to be more skilled in the genre, but also to be successful entrepreneurs."

Jamaica is known for the performing arts, said Clarke in a BNS release, but has not truly exploited art as a tool of social and economic development.

Good business

Fine arts a multibillion dollar business globally, generated US$23.5 billion in sales in 2001, and created tens of thousands of jobs: 73,500 jobs across 28,000 businesses in Europe, and 35,000 jobs produced by 8,800 industries in the United States. "Ancillary activity in the fine arts sector produced another $3 billion in sales in United States and Europe, creating another 80,000 professional and service jobs," said Clarke, who is also president of the Jamaica Bankers Association.

Having cited those figures, the Scotiabank president, who was the main speaker at the September 25 opening of Jamaican artist Barrington Watson's new art gallery on Old Hope Road, Kingston, said the sector is a potential source of employment for Jamaicans.

"Considering how many people leave the school system each year hoping to find jobs, as artists you can not only make a good living for yourselves, but provide employment for others as well," the Scotiabank boss commented to the artistic crowd.

He also urged the professionals in the business to develop business oppor-tunities through reproductions in prints and consumer items.