Craft Craft Jamaica giving creatives a platform

Jamaica abounds with creative people: singers, dancers, actors, carvers, ceramists, sculptors, painters, illustrators, photographers, fine artists, jewellers.

Some are well known, others are not.

Despite their fame, or lack thereof, they all need a platform from which they can effectively market their work. Some cannot afford a physical shop because of financial challenges or burdensome operational costs.

The use of social media and other online platforms is one way then to get the information out that they are open for business. Some go it alone in their online outreach. Others are part of an umbrella entity.

Craft Craft Jamaica is one such online entity that promotes and markets the work of some creatives, and recently, it hosted a pop-up craft village at Campion College, St Andrew, to offer a physical space where buyers and sellers could meet face to face to do business and to network.

Hospitality Jamaica was present at the Lindo Auditorium at Campion and spoke with Marcel Norman, the CEO of Craft Craft Jamaica, about the work that it is doing. “At its core, it is an online platform that allows Jamaicans to sell their wares to the world,” Norman said.

There is no fee for the hosting, and vendors can put as many items as possible on the site, but each item attracts a small “mark-up” from Craft Craft. One of the main requirements is that the items must be produced locally because the site is about promoting Brand Jamaica.

And while it cannot resolve all the challenges that its vendors face, Craft Craft assists vendors with getting their payment from overseas buyers, the distribution of the items, and the following-up of leads.

There are 60 vendors on the site, which was established in September last year, but Norman said that in the next six to eight weeks, about 70 more will be added.

As for the motivation behind the pop-up craft village, Norman said, “We have been in communication with about 100 vendors, and we just want to showcase a bit of them, to showcase the beauty of Jamaican creativity.”

The intention was also to get vendors to interact with one another. And for this, the first such gathering, he said that the vendors were excited about what it means for the rest of the year.

Among the patrons who attended were officers from the Tourism Enhancement Fund. In reaction to their presence, Normans said: “They have taken notice of our craft producers. They have realised that we have quality products that we can now provide not just to the local market, but international markets as well”.