Charlestown Nevis
March 21, 2007
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Library Services Mr. Joseph Wiltshire, appealed to participants of a three -day Calligraphy
Workshop on Nevis, to share their newfound skill and to use it to empower others. The workshop was hosted by the Nevis Public Library and facilitated by Mr. Laurence Richards from March 18 – 20, 2007.
“Now you have obtained this skill, what are you going to do with it? I hope you go out into the community and teach other persons, so that more and more persons will learn the art. That is one of the great things about empowerment, that when we get it we don’t keep it to ourselves but rather we spread it. So my word to you is, that you spread it in the communities in which you find yourselves,” he said.
During brief remarks at the workshop’s closing ceremony at Marion Heights on March 20, 2007, Mr. Wiltshire commended Mrs. Lornette Hanley, Librarian, for seeking to upgrade and improve the skills of her Bindery staff, which was now better positioned to enhance the services of the department, themselves and others.
During remarks, Mrs Hanley explained that the workshop was in keeping with the Library’s mandate for 2007, to train its personnel. She noted that since training was the key to one’s social, spiritual and cultural development, it was fitting to commence by organising training that would benefit the Library staff.According to Mrs. Hanley, the training in Calligraphy was focussed on the Bindery staff because it was felt that although they possessed the skill necessary for general repairs of books they should enhance that skill.
“Calligraphy now gives them the art not just to repair books and write on faded scripts but also gives them the ability to write information on books that the Bindery can actually generate [including] booklets etc.,” she said.
Notwithstanding, she thanked the facilitator for his offer to share his skills and registered hope that the workshop would not be the last, since a number of persons had indicated their interest in learning Calligraphy.
Apart from the Bindery staff, the workshop also attracted one participant from the Teachers Resource Centre in Nevis and another from the Government Printery in St. Kitts.
Meantime, Mr. Richards said he was heartened with the response from the participants and that they were challenged to practice daily because it was the essence of improving their skill of Calligraphy. He urged them to continue to practise constantly.
“The field of Calligraphy requires continuous practise. I made the point several times during the workshop that where I am in terms of my Calligraphy writing came with years and years of practise and it has improved with time and so I want to challenge the participants to keep practising because you will see continuous improvement.
“I am very pleased also, with the fact that I am seeing not only some natural artists and natural Calligraphists but persons who were quite willing and quite interested in this skill and with those attitudes the potential to go far is already here”¦ My words of encouragement to the participants then are to practise, practise, practise. Practise makes perfect”¦So you can continue to see the improvement that I believe you would like to see for your own gratification”¦. The more you practise the more confident you become and the better you would find the work you do,” he said.
Miss Claudette Brooks who spoke on behalf of the participants, said they had learnt a lot in a very short time even though there were times that they could not get the letters made properly. Notwithstanding, they did their best with the assistance of Mr. Richards who corrected their mistakes for which they were grateful.
The participants each received a certificate of participation which was distributed by Mr. Wiltshire. The ceremony concluded with a display of the participants creations.