White for his committee, Government, sponsors and other interested parties.

Since it is a work-in-progress, it is subject to change as the concept moves forward.

*** The Bermuda Project The Establishment of a Rediscovery and Learning Centre for the Preservation, Development and Promotion of Bermudian Performing Arts and Entertainment Sponsored by The Bank of Bermuda and the BF&M Insurance Group "All things Bermudian...from cow-pollys to calypso.'' In the 1950's and early 60's Bermuda had over 12 local bands and 24 groups of Bermudian entertainers performing in over 40 venues including hotels, pubs, restaurants, clubs and the Navy and Air Force bases. In the late 60's large local nightclubs and hotel show rooms were added to those venues featuring top imported entertainment together with local calypso and folk singers, limbo dance troupes and steel bands. We were enjoying a tourism boom and had in excess of 500,000 visitors a year, most of whom stayed on the Island for about week.

The only real problem was that local entertainers and show bands were forced to travel from hotel to hotel, and venue to venue, to literally perform "one night stands''. Hotel management did not have the foresight or understanding of the entertainment industry to give the local show groups their own room and let the visitors move from hotel to hotel. The result was that Bermudian entertainers became itinerant in their own Country, and robbed of the advantages of developing proper sound, lighting and atmosphere for their performances. Nightclubs and hotel show rooms would often tune their venues to meet the demands of their imported entertainers, but the local acts had to make do.

Bermuda Project Briefing When hotel rates started to rise dramatically in the 70's and early 80's Bermudian hotel employees were never trained up to those new higher standards.

At about the same time the automatic gratuity was forced into existence and the standard of service began to decline dramatically, as did Bermudian contact with our visitors. The result was a decrease in visitor arrivals. To meet the spiralling wage and maintenance demands of the 80's many hotels cut back on their in-house entertainment, and at the same time "disco'' was dispatching a large number of live entertainment venues.

Tourism arrivals continued to decline in the late 80's and many club and pub owners started to import international talent, which displaced the local entertainers. The Bermuda Musician's Union was unable to stop this practice.

The hotels and pubs were often supplying room and board for their imported talent and paying a small salary. Local talent was expected to accept the same salary scale. As a result, many Bermudian entertainers were forced to find daytime jobs to supplement their income. This reduced the quality of local entertainment even further. Groups started to disband without teaching or trying to interest the young in their entertainment skills.

In the early 90's, as part of the Premier's Commission on Competitiveness, the Arts and Entertainment Section brought the problem to the attention of Government and indicated that if the decline in local entertainment was allowed to continue we could see it disappear altogether.

Suggestions were made in this extensive report to re-establish a strong local entertainment industry with the result of making Bermuda a more interesting and exciting destination.

That section of the report was totally ignored by Government. The leaders in the Bermuda performing arts community were even more discouraged, and convinced that there was no real future for them in Bermuda.

With calypso no longer a strong musical force, the young people turned to playing foreign rap, reggae, pop and rock. There were two or three good show groups still performing in the early to mid-90's but they featured little or no island music. Thus they failed to draw the visitors in sufficient numbers and soon became defunct.

As visitor arrivals continued to decline, major hotels closed their doors, and both US bases shut down, the situation became even more critical and the local entertainment industry became practically non-existent.

There is a wealth of talent on the Island but they are not interested in performing island music. Some of the older calypsonians are still writing original material, but there is no one interested in helping them market their material. This unfortunate situation presents very little opportunity for those visitors who do come to Bermuda to hear any local performing artists doing local material, and having no way to appreciate or understand our local cultural performing arts heritage.

Tom Butterfield and his Masterworks people have done an excellent job in repatriating Bermuda paintings done by world class master painters, and interesting the young in the visual arts. In fact, the visual arts are very much alive and doing well in Bermuda. And the National Dance Theatre has done some stunningly beautiful and creative local material.

But except for the Hawkins Island summer evening bash, and one or two local venues, or an occasional get together of all the old calypsonians, folk singers and rockers, the local performing arts have been almost totally forgotten.

As of January, 2001, there is nowhere a visitor can go to hear a live local performer doing island music.

THE NEED To interest and develop opportunity for a new generation of local singers, actors, musicians, entertainers, dancers, writers, composers, and visual artists, and to: Encourage them to perform and produce original Bermudian material; Teach them how to better market their talent; and Secure and promote full time and part time venues that will feature these performing artists throughout Bermuda so that visitors and residents will always be able to hear, see and enjoy local entertainers performing local music, dance and drama.

To create, produce and perform new material and professionally showcase our present and past cultural arts material in the Dockyard area, St. George and the new space that will become available in 2003 at the Bermuda National Centre in Pembroke.

To make accessible for public viewing all important past and present Bermudian works of visual and performing arts within a Performing and Visual Arts Web Site.

To provide a large, permanent home base where Bermudians, residents and visitors can go to immerse themselves in the local cultural arts, and where young Bermudians can develop and perfect their own individual artistic talents.

To assure that local broadcasters play more Bermudian content.

To assist in securing major international corporate sponsorships for those performing and visual artists producing original works, and who have achieved a high enough professional standard to be successfully marketed in US and Canadian venues.

THE OBJECTIVES To reverse the denigration of our Bermudian performing artists by the establishment of a place and the means to interest, excite and train an entire new generation of musicians, singers, writers, composers, dancers and entertainers, so that we can realise: A Bermudian band in every major nightclub; Bermudian entertainers in every major pub and restaurant; Two permanent Bermuda musical shows in two major hotels six nights a week, 50 weeks of the year; Strolling Bermuda Calypso singers, buskers and entertainers in Dockyard and St. George seven days a week from May to August, and three days a week from September to December, and in March and April; Living history performers at Fort St. Catherine and Fort Hamilton, as well as at major National Trust show places from May to August; One local radio station dedicated to playing Bermuda music and promoting the local cultural arts; A National Calypso Band; and All Bermudian, touring National Dance, Drama and Visual Arts groups performing and showing Bermuda works annually in major gateway cities.

With these objectives we will be able to: Express our past and present foibles, facts and frustrations through the medium of music, art, drama and dance.

Garner community recognition and respect for those who excel in the performing arts.

Create a pride of ownership in our Bermudian cultural heritage.

HOW WE GET IT DONE Obtain seed money and like donations to fund a three month start-up project.

Obtain an office work space with computer, printer/fax, telephone, internet connection and cellular phone.

Collect, archive and preserve all music, poetry, dance forms, writing, art and recordings produced, performed or published by Bermudians; as well as that material with Bermudian content created by Bermudian residents and/or visitors.

Input all material into a data base and create a sponsored web site for access by teachers, students and the general public.

Publish the best of the material and market it to Bermudians, residents and visitors.

The Bermuda Project Form a composers and arrangers group to create a "Bermuda Sound,'' and produce new recordings of all the old material that is not suitable for broadcast.

Add a lyricist to the group to create new material based on our cultural heritage, our people and Bermuda's natural beauty.

Persuade one broadcaster to dedicate one station to playing 50 percent local content and aggressively promote it as Bermuda's Own. Utilise this station to run professionally produced Cultural Vignettes that inform and entertain. This station would also feature a daily performing and visual arts calendar, poetry readings by famous Bermudians, and interviews with Bermudian artists, writers, performers, etc. If successful we will move to establish a 100 percent local cultural content radio station and promote it heavily to visitors and first time residents.

Create and produce a Calypso Revue with a small group of entertainers -- also known as The Holiday Island Review -- and arrange for a major hotel (like The Fairmont Hamilton Princess) to dedicate a performance venue (like The Gazebo Lounge) for shows six nights a week for the entire 2001 season, co-sponsored by The Cultural Centre, The Department of Tourism, and the hotel, with an "if successful'' guarantee to continue the performances throughout the winter season of 2001-2002. If our first year is successful we create a Bermuda Gombey Revue for another major hotel or club.

Create a large National Calypso Band, with brass, singers and dancers, to perform (sponsored) at all major public functions and special events; Establish a sponsored, all Bermudian, full time professional National Dance Drama and Arts Touring Company to produce and perform Bermudian works in all of the major gateway cities in the US, Canada and Europe.

Obtain sponsors for and commission a series of seven large illustrative paintings showing the highlights of our cultural heritage: `The Seafarers': Show merchant mariners, fishermen, whalers, barricade runners, salt rakers, sailors and buccaneers; `The Builders': Show Bermudians cutting stone, building houses, churches, schooners, skiffs, dinghies and the Bermuda Railway; `The Growers': Show Bermudians growing onions, tobacco, Easter lilies, bananas and citrus; `The Entertainers': Show Gombey dancers, drummers, chanters, calypso singers, limbo dancers and story tellers; `The Artists': Show painters, sculptors, cedar workers, furniture builders, silversmiths, shell jewellery makers and carvers; `The Hoteliers': Show a welcoming Bermudian doorman, chambermaids placing and hibiscus on a pillow, a waiter with tropical drinks on a tray, a chef, moped riders and visitors on a Bermuda Buggy ride; and `Nature's Bermudians': Show singing tree frogs, chameleon, cow-polly/angel fish/yellow grunt, Easter lily, loquats, kiskadee and longtail.

Get sponsors and commission writers and poets to produce material to go with these paintings that can be published as booklets with the paintings as a cover.

Design and produce a Bermudian Shirt -- like the Hawaiian shirt -- based on: the Bermudiana flower; the palmetto leaf; the loquat; singing frogs; the cow-polly; and the longtail.

If successful we will then produce skirts, shifts, bathing suits etc.

Find, fund and develop a place around and within which: All of the above can be displayed and seen; Bermudians can come to learn and create; and Visitors and residents can learn, participate in and purchase items of cultural significance.

This space will be an old Bermudian type estate -- e.g. Camden, The Plantation, The Grove, Spithead Lodge -- with spaces for small indoor and outdoor performance areas, dance, drama and musical rehearsal spaces, library/writing room, art studio, audio/visual viewing/listening area, demonstration area for kite making, cooking etc., gift shop, catering kitchen and administrative area.

This space will be our biggest money spinner as we will promote the use of The Centre, with its attendant performing and visual artists, as a venue catering to special events and functions.

Produce videotaped interviews and performances of all senior Bermudian calypsonians and have them archived.

Create a Performing Arts Equity Fund that will create an industry standard wage and work ethic. This Fund will provide medical benefits for all working performing artists as well as offering to them the ability to participate in a group pension plan.

Develop a system that will pay royalties to all writers and composers when their material is used and/or sold.

Hire a full time Project Director, and write very specific terms of employment and job descriptions to show the individual working under the direction of the Board of Management Trustees.