Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

As Clyde McKenzie opened last Tuesday morning's programme to set out the Creative Production and Training Centre's (CPTC) yearlong activities to mark its 25th anniversary, he noted that "25 years in the life of any organisation or individual is an important milestone".

And, CPTC board chairman, Christopher Samuda, told those gathered in CPTC's Wycliffe Bennett Studios on Arnold Road, St Andrew, that CPTC at 25 is "young but wise, pioneering but accomplished, maturing yet mature, acclaimed yet humble".

Samuda also defined the scope of the CPTC, saying "we are indeed more than an institution of curricula and functional instruction. We are a digitalised, but social factory engaged in the building and export of talents, capacity, know-how and goodwill. And our market defies geographical boundaries for, like the media, our commodity is recorded and reported truth".

CPTC CEO Angela Patterson outlined a year of activities, which begins with a church service at St Matthew's Church, Allman Town, St Andrew, on Sunday, May 3, which encompasses those multiple facets. Included are the second biannual Digital Arts Festival, which will be held at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, in July, as well as the 'Breakfast With the Stars' series in which a number of Jamaica's prominent entertainers will share their time in an up-close and personal setting.

Before Beijing

Among these are Jimmy Cliff, Shaggy, Sean Paul, Maxi Priest and Marcia Griffiths.

Patterson pointed out that even before Jamaica's unprecedented success in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics, the CPTC had started a project to capture Jamaican athletes' remarkable achievements. The Born to Run documentary will be launched during CPTC's 25th anniversary year, as will a documentary on the life of former prime minister, Edward Seaga, under whose administration the CPTC was established.

The Festival of Drums and Voices will be at Emancipation Park, New Kingston, in December and between October and next January a series of events will be held to celebrate various facets of the creative arts, from fine art to literature, to pottery.

Patterson said CPTC's Media Technology Institute would host four master classes. Among the topics that will be addressed are the Red Camera, Protools/MIDI, Microsoft Technologies, Animation and ADOBE in detail.

Among the organisations that have already committed to supporting the CPTC in its anniversary celebrations are Watts New, The Gleaner and THE STAR.

"We are going to be busy. We are going to be excitingly busy. At 25 we are Jamaican, we are Caribbean and we are exceedingly creative," Patterson concluded.