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Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts

About Us

About Us

The Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts

Vision 

To be a vibrant, creative and intellectual hub and global leader in research and practice of Caribbean culture and the arts. 

Mission 
To provide high-quality student-centered teaching invested in the decolonization of knowledge while promoting the seamless integration of theory and practice, sustaining a dynamic, innovative, intellectual and creative environment for the future of the Caribbean and beyond. 

About
On the observance of Emancipation Day in Barbados on August 1, 2020, the region’s cultural landscape received a significant uplift when The University of the West Indies (The UWI) at Cave Hill launched the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts. It is The UWI’s ninth faculty – the seventh at Cave Hill – and is driven by a focus on deepening critical studies of Caribbean culture and identity as well as global economic imperatives that centres the creative industry within the academy.  The Faculty opens up a world of opportunities for aspiring cultural artists, performing arts practitioners and facilitates in-depth study of the Caribbean’s much celebrated culture.

The Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts comprises two academic Departments:

  • The Department of Cultural Studies is responsible for the delivery of the BA Caribbean Studies,the BA Caribbean Studies with Minor combinations (Gender Studies, International Relations, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology),  the Minor in Cultural Studies and all courses in cultural studies (CLTR).  At the graduate level, the Diploma, MA, MPhil and PhD programmes are offered.
  • The Department of Creative and Performing Arts,  offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Arts (Dance, Theatre, Film),  the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, the Bachelor of Arts in Music with Education, the Minor in Music and all courses in the creative and performing arts. At the graduate level, the Department offers the MA Creative Arts with Studio Arts, Arts Entrepreneur, and Arts Educator concentrations.The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination is a unit under the Department with responsibility for facilities, including classrooms, rentals and events.

 

Why Study Culture

Culture is the human creative response to the challenge of surviving our environment. While it takes a number of different forms we think of culture as a catalyst and animating force in our lives. It is what allows us to express some aspect of ourselves and plays a vital role in defining our individual and collective identities: who we are, what we do, how and why we do it. Human beings use both our intellect and our emotive selves to communicate and express these cultural identities and the corresponding value that give meaning to our traditions and expressions.

Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that seeks to understand the complexity of culture as an everyday practice that structures the lives of people while simultaneously being manipulated for its socio-economic and political uses. Its contemporary force and relevance is that it has a wide vocabulary for the accommodation of the comparative understanding of different societies across time and space.

At the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, students critically examine how cultural practices and meanings are produced, circulated and changed over time including its application to the study and appreciation of the Creative Economy. Many influential thinkers the world over believe that culture and the creative economies are the defining characteristic of the twenty-first century. Societies which focus on community development by prioritizing the creative imagination are likely to improve productivity, innovation and achieve sustainable economic growth.

The Arts are a critical component in the study of culture and the creative economy. Students use theory and history to understand art and cultural expression as they explore their individual and collective identities and representations. In the areas of Film, Digital Media, Dance, Theatre or Music, students use this knowledge to critique and create exciting new ways of seeing, experiencing and sustaining the world in which we live.

The central aim of Cultural Studies and the Creative and Performing Arts is to promote the study of culture and cultural expression at the UWI as an important area of scholastic and creative inquiry and research and, by so doing, stimulate academic discourse, encourage creative practice, engage in community outreach and promote the understanding of Caribbean culture and identity regionally and within a broader global context.

In the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performance Arts we situate our investigations of culture in a comparative framework that centers the Caribbean, and the broader African diaspora within an expansive global network. Through our theoretical and creative outputs, we recognize the social imperatives of our times while acknowledging the historical and socio-political structures that provide further contextual meaning to our critical and expressive exploration of our world.

Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts
Telephone: (246) 417-4776 Email: fccpa@cavehill.uwi.edu
Office Hours: Monday to Friday, 8.30 am - 4.30 pm | Find Us