Foundation, exhibition in honour of Cecil Cooper launched
Published:Tuesday | June 21, 2022 | 12:09 AMPaul H. Williams/Gleaner Writer
Under the patronage of Juliet Holness, the member of parliament for East Rural St Andrew, the Cecil Cooper Foundation was launched during the inaugural scholarship exhibition staged at the Olympia Gallery in Papine, St Andrew, on Friday, June 17.
The inaugural Cecil Cooper Foundation Scholarship Exhibition featured select works from the collection of one of Jamaica’s most eminent painters, art educators and operatic tenors.
Cooper passed away in 2016, just over a week after he was conferred with Jamaica’s fifth-highest honour, the Order of Distinction (Commander Class), at a special investiture ceremony at King’s House.
“The foundation has established a trust fund to provide a full scholarship annually to a final-year student at the Edna Manley College, as well as four to six bursaries for first-year students. The mission of this charitable foundation is to assist the arts, culture, and those who study and work within the Jamaican art space,” the foundation said in a statement.
In his keynote address, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the event, held on Cooper’s birthday, was of great significance to his family, friends and art lovers, and a celebration of the life and work of a Jamaican icon. Holness went on to thank him for his contribution to “his beloved Jamaica”. In noting that Cooper had a significant impact on Jamaican art and artists, the prime minister also said “it is therefore highly appropriate that his timeless and significant work and legacy is being recognised in this formal way with the establishment of the Cecil Cooper Foundation”.
He commended Rose Bennett-Cooper for spearheading the establishment of the foundation, “which not only provides deserving tributes for Cooper, but will also ensure that young people will be taught about his life and work,” for he was “one of our Jamaican icons that we must at all times honour and celebrate”.
“In our 60th year of Independence, it is important that we honour our artists in all fields, that our children know and are inspired by them,” the prime minister said. “Events like these, and efforts such as what we are doing now in launching this foundation, are creating the opportunities for young people to get access to the arts through full scholarships. It’s a good start.”
In response to an “admonition” from musician Ibo Cooper about the paucity of spending on the arts, Holness said he had taken note, and that “there is a great sense that Jamaica needs a renaissance, a period where we place central focus on” on our creativity, art and performance. He recalled that the Ministry of National Security spent “a significant amount of its resources” on the teaching of classical music in downtown Kingston last year. That thrust, he said, could be expanded nationally.
There were also addresses by the foundation patron, Juliet Holness, and Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange, who announced that the Government would be adding another full scholarship, for music, taking into consideration the musical side of Cooper’s life. His widow Rose Bennett-Cooper, Managing Director Rose Thwaites of the Olympia Gallery, artist Brian McDonald, and Chairman of the CHASE Fund, Omar Frith, also gave remarks.
The event was sponsored by the CHASE Fund, whose chairman told the gathering that “the fund is delighted to support the launch,” and that he was “pleased to say that CHASE has a deep appreciation for the need for funding support for EMCVPA students, as is evident in the high number of scholarship and education grant applications received and supported by CHASE from these students each year”.
“The mission of the foundation is closely aligned with some of the objectives of the fund, which commits 15 per cent of its resources annually to arts and culture, which includes initiatives that lead to the improvement of libraries, archives and documentation facilities, provides support for national heritage programmes, and provides scholarships and grant support for the development of the talent and skill of Jamaica’s artists and performers,” Frith said further.
CHASE also contributed to the scholarship trust fund that was established. Proceeds from the sale of the un-owned pieces will go towards the trust fund. In the coming years, the exhibitions will also feature the works of students who have benefited from the scholarships and bursaries, and the work of some of Cooper’s colleagues. This show will run until Saturday, July 16.