Dreaming of the big 5-0

When the sounds of ska filled the air in 1962 there was a dream for Jamaica's music industry.

When Rex Nettleford twirled on stage in a very Jamaican way for the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), there was a dream for the arts and for culture.

When Barbara Gloudon wrote about the great literary minds of the time, there was dream in that ink.

What was it?

Fast-track 50 years later. Jamaican popular music has made its mark on the world stage, though many say it is now dying a slow, painful death. The NDTC is 50 years strong with a body of work internationally renowned. Jamaica's theatre has made massive leaps, even making small inroads into into the lucrative film industry. Many world-renowned artists, artistes and the like have called Jamaica the place of their birth, but have we achieved our dreams in the areas of art, music, dance, theatre, culture?

Are we where we want to be?

That is a question The Gleaner put to some of the foremost thinkers in the area of culture and entertainment and, I daresay, the answer has proven much harder to come by than you would at first imagine.