Ardenne Excessive College has copped the Jamaica Cultural Growth Fee (JCDC) Marcus Garvey Award for Excellence within the Performing Arts for the fifteenth 12 months.
The 2025 presentation was held on Wednesday (October 15) on the Little Theatre in Kingston.
The coveted Marcus Garvey Award recognises the group or faculty that has accrued essentially the most factors in three or extra efficiency disciplines within the annual performing arts competitors.
Minister of Tradition, Gender, Leisure and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, in her handle, recommended the individuals.
She mentioned that the performing arts competitors will not be solely a celebration of expertise but additionally the dedication of younger Jamaicans to maintain the nation’s artistic spirit alive.
“At present, we aren’t simply celebrating performances, we’re celebrating perseverance, ardour and goal; the fireplace that retains Jamaican creativity blazing from parish stage to nationwide stage,” she mentioned.
“The JCDC’s Pageant of the Performing Arts is a motion. It’s Jamaica transferring in full artistic stride, proving that our cultural heartbeat is stronger than ever,” she added.
Minister Grange mentioned that 2025 was a record-breaking 12 months for the JCDC, with greater than 30,000 performers throughout speech, drama, dance, music, and conventional efficiency.
She famous that many notable Jamaicans who’ve gone on to realize greatness began out as entrants within the totally different performing arts classes.
“The performing arts aren’t simply leisure. They’re schooling, empowerment, and financial alternatives rolled into one. So lots of our famend Jamaicans – Daliah Harris, Kevoy Burton, Owen “Blacka” Ellis, and Michael “Stringbean” Nicholson, simply to call a number of, started their journey on a JCDC stage. For them, that stage was the beginning block, simply because the observe was for Indirect Seville, who sprinted his technique to international glory this 12 months,” she identified.
Extracurricular Coordinator at Ardenne Excessive College, Zia Grey, advised JIS Information that preparation for this 12 months’s JCDC Performing Arts competitors continued a convention of laborious work, dedication and dedication by the scholars.
“We had early morning and night rehearsals daily. We stability schooling with JCDC preparation as a result of on the finish of the day changing into a holistic scholar is what we wish at Ardenne,” she mentioned.
“I feel they had been hungry to hold dwelling the trophy for a fifteenth 12 months, so we put out the additional effort, and we got here, introduced our A-game, and we conquered,” she added.
The opposite nominees for the 2025 Marcus Garvey Award for Excellence within the Performing Arts so as of ultimate scores had been St. Jago Excessive College, St. Catherine; Godfrey Stewart Excessive College, Westmoreland; Inexperienced Island Excessive College, Hanover; and St. Andrew Excessive College for Women.