Cayman National Cultural Foundation’s 25th Annual National Arts & Culture Awards this Thursday, 21st February.

2019
Awardees

HERITAGE
CROSS AWARDS

GOLD
HERITAGE CROSS AWARDEES

Melvin
Augustine (POSTHUMOUS)

Melvin
Augustine was employed in his native country, Belize, as assistant
bandmaster of the Belize Police Force, after receiving the required
musical theory recognition from the Royal School of Music in the U.K.
He moved to the Cayman Islands with his family in September 1976 to
join the Royal Cayman Islands Police as a police tailor and to
develop a ceremonial police band.

The
band grew under his direction and became an integral part of police
and public functions, the highlight of which was playing for the
Queen of England when she visited the Cayman Islands in 1994.

Melvin
will be remembered for his many musical recordings such as ‘Munzie
Boat’, as well as leading top dance bands like The Lonelies Combo
and the Settlers Band which backed international calypso artists like
the late Arrow and The Mighty Gabby.

During
Pirates Week festivals, Melvin and his band also backed and recorded
with local artists including Maxine McCoy, the late Ray McLaughlin
and Eric Smith. Melvin retired from the Royal Cayman Islands Police
in 2006. He taught music briefly at the Red Bay Primary School and
privately tutored musicians on various instruments. In his later
years he mainly played as a one-man band. His influence on the music
of the Cayman Islands shall long outlive us and his many recordings
will continue to be played both here and abroad.

Maxine
& Maureen Bodden

The
Bodden Family’s Christmas Wonderland.

It’s
the most wonderful time of the year when the tradition of decorating
the tree, and the hanging of garlands and lights begin. For the
Bodden family it began back in the early 60s with the decorating of
their Norfolk Island Pine tree and plastic Christmas figures in the
yard. From then on, their yard decorations continued to progress to
the high tech computerized synchronized display they have built over
the past years. Their bright array of holidays lights and animated
figures have evolved into a Christmas Wonderland for the local
community and the tourists visiting the island to come and enjoy. The
Bodden twins, Maureen and Maxine, like to coordinate the color lights
and design the yard with their team of workers who hang the lights
that are switched on after Thanksgiving. They welcome the tourists
and residents, the elderly and handicap who come to see and enjoy the
lights. The Boddens feel richly blest seeing how so many visitors
enjoy coming to visit, the kind remarks they share and the thrill it
gives them of knowing they have made someone happy. The Bodden
family Christmas Wonderland is the gift they give to everyone here at
this very special time of year.

The
Crighton Family

Rex
and Cecile Crighton first started their Christmas decorations at
Spotts in November 1970. They wanted to decorate the yard for their
three young children to enjoy. Their first Christmas display was a
lighted plastic Nativity Scene from Sears Roebuck & Company in
Miami, Florida. The nativity scene was important to them as they
wanted to portray the true meaning of Christmas…that “Jesus is
the Reason for the Season.”

From
that first scene, their Christmas Wonderland has expanded to over 25
scenes to date. These range from religious scenes with a life size
animated nativity scene to secular scenes of the North Pole and Santa
Claus with snow machines and a large train scene with Christmas
villages. Christmas music is played to make the experience more
entertaining and joyful.

One
of the Crighton family’s favorite displays is a traditional Cayman
house with white sand yard bordered by conch shells. It was created
in memory of family members who have passed on and touched their
lives. This scene gives people a glimpse of the way Christmas was
celebrated in Cayman’s past and helps preserve our history and
heritage.

Up
until 2010, Rex dressed up as Santa Claus on December 23 and handed
out candies and gifts to the children who visited the display. He
immensely enjoyed seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing what
they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. Cecile often joined
him dressed as Mrs. Claus, and the children helped hand out the
gifts.

The Crighton Family love opening
their Christmas display to the community and bringing joy to people.
It is their way of giving back to the community. They hope that
everyone who visits their Christmas Wonderland will experience the
true meaning of Christmas.

SILVER
HERITAGE CROSS AWARDEES

Ms.
Annie Rose Scott

Elsa
Annie Rose Scott, or ‘Annie Rose’, has been the Community
Development Officer for the Sister Islands within the Department of
Children & Family Services for 30 years. Talented, ambitious,
creative, confident, caring, warm, dependable, resourceful and
hardworking are some of the qualities attributed to her by the
community. She has served on numerous committees including the
National Youth Policy Task Force, Older Persons Policy Task Force,
National Youth Commission and National Drug Council. She was also
Chairperson of the National Parenting Programme, a Scout Leader,
Deputy Chairperson for the Sister Islands Annual Agriculture Show and
a Board Member of the Cayman Islands National Cultural Foundation.

Annie
Rose often takes the initiative to develop programmes that address
her community’s needs, such as Brac Against Alcohol Misuse,
Sew-n-So Ladies Club, Adopt A Grandparent Programme, and the Senior
Citizens Social Club. In 2008, with the support of the District
Commissioner and Deputy, she established the Youth Development Centre
to provide a safe, nurturing environment and supportive services for
children and families.

Annie
Rose is the ‘soul’ of her community, always working diligently on
the many projects/events she organises for seniors and youth and is
often sought out by both the public and private sectors to assist
with events and workshops.

In
2004, she was honoured with the prestigious the Queen's Certificate
and Badge of Honour for service to the community. As the 2018-2019
Secretary for the Brac’s Rotary Club, she is a prime example of
their motto, “Service above Self”.

Ms.
Elvie Lizabeth Walton-Thompson

Elvie
Lizabeth Walton Thompson, fondly called Liz, was born in 1959 to
Japheth (deceased) and Vedal Walton of Spot Bay, Cayman Brac. After
spending her formative years in the Brac, her family migrated to
Grand Cayman in 1970 where she attended the Cayman Islands High
School. She graduated in 2011 from UCCI with a Certificate in Legal
Studies (with Distinction) from the Institute of Legal Executives
(UK).

Liz
joined the Cayman Islands Government Civil Service in 1980 working in
several posts before her final promotion as the first Director of
Immigration Boards, retiring in 2005 to fulfill a life-long dream to
return home. In the Brac, she took up the post of Personal Assistant
to Hon. Moses Kirkconnell managing his political office as
Constituency Office Administrative Secretary.

Her
community work has spanned over four decades and included positions
such as Secretary of the Cayman Islands Civil Service Association;
member of the Caymanian Status & Permanent Residence Board;
volunteer with Rotary Club of Cayman Brac; Chairwoman of CODAC Cayman
Brac; Treasurer of Cayman Brac Pirates/Heritage Day Committee; and
honorary member and events coordinator for the Veterans & Seaman
Society of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. She was appointed a
Justice of the Peace in 2018.

In
her free time, Liz enjoys relaxing at home and spending treasured
moments with her husband Kelly Thompson, her family members and
friends just enjoying the simpler things in life.

BRONZE
HERITAGE CROSS AWARDEE

Mr.
Keino Daley

Keino
Daley was born in Jamaica and moved to Cayman Brac at 18-months old.
Upon graduation from high school, he started working at DIVI Tiara
Beach Resort as a Groundsman, his first official opportunity to share
the culture and heritage of our islands. He then moved on to Public
Works but was soon seconded to the District Administration’s
Marketing and Promotions Unit to help the Unit promote its Nature,
Tourism and Heritage programmes.

Keino
flourished in his temporary position, developing a keen interest in
Cayman culture, history, heritage and cuisine, and has been helping
to enhance the experiences of visitors to the Sister Islands ever
since. He was fully transferred to the post in 2007 and became the
“official face of Tourism in the Sister Islands”.

Keino
exudes raw, authentic Caymanian hospitality, and is enthusiastic
about sharing his love for his country and vast knowledge of local
flora and fauna. He actively promotes Caymanian heritage and is known
for his amicable personality and infectious smile. He has also been
featured in magazines and online articles and was a recipient of the
Cultural Heritage Emerging Pioneer 2014 Heroes Day Award as well as
the 2017 Tourism Emerging Pioneer Award.

He
has participated in programmes organised through the Marketing &
Promotions Unit, Cayman Brac Heritage House, Cayman Brac Museum,
Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, CNCF, National Gallery, and
other public and private sector initiatives. He says he is just happy
to be a part of helping to keep our culture alive.

STAR
FOR CREATIVITY AWARDS

GOLD
STAR FOR CREATIVITY AWARDEES

Ms.
Rita Estevanovich

Rita
Estevanovich has been on stage since age eight, performing in school
plays at Triple C School and at the National Children’s Festival of
the Arts. She joined Young at Arts and Dance Unlimited as a teen and
continued in the performing arts at university where she enrolled in
modelling school and recorded music. Shortly after graduating from
university, she became a television reporter for Cayman 27, and was
later hired by CNCF for 10 years, becoming involved in all aspects of
arts and culture.

Rita
has played leading and supporting roles in several local productions
including ‘Rundown’, ‘Collected Stories’, ‘Doubt’,
‘Sistahs’, ‘Hannah’s Confession’, ‘De Honeymoon Over’
and ‘Fallen Angels’. She is a regular on the ‘Gimistory’
stage, and her voice can be heard on local, regional and U.S.
marketing advertisements as well as on the local cartoon series ‘Bobo
& Tete’.

Rita
is a graduate of the New York Film Academy. She is the Chair of the
Cayman Islands Film Control Board and has received two CNCF Arts and
Culture Awards – the Heritage Cross, Bronze in 2010 and the 2008
Artistic Achievement Award.

Rita
represented Cayman at the 2018 World Championships of the Performing
Arts in Long Beach, California. She won seven medals and was named
the Senior Grand Champion Actor and the Senior Grand Champion
Performer of the World, an award given to one performer across all
disciplines. Rita is the first actor in 22 years to take this title
and the only female actor to ever win this award.

Mr.
Earl La Pierre

Originally,
from St Clair, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Earl La Pierre is one of many
Trinidadians who have made their mark in their various spheres of the
world. While living in Canada he taught steel pan music at the
University of Toronto, North York Board of Education and the Toronto
Board of Education. He was instrumental in getting the Steel pan
offered as a credit course in the North Schools and won ALL Kiwanis
Music Festivals in the Steel band category in Secondary, Junior and
Primary School from 1979 to 1986.

In
1986 Earl headed to the Cayman Islands for the Pirates Week Festival
when an opportunity to teach pan arose. He opened the Cayman School
for Pan, started a Carnival Steel band named Panoramers and taught
pan at the primary, middle and high schools, as well as Catholic
Schools in Grand Cayman. As a result of Earl's contributions, all the
schools in Cayman now offer steel band as part of their educational
programmes. Earl won every School Music Festival and every Carnival
Pan Competition in the Cayman Islands from 1988 to 2006 and is
credited with introducing Trinidad and Tobago's national instrument
to this country.

In
2014 the Ontario Steel Pan Association (O.S.A.) honoured Earl for his
contribution to the art of Steel Pan in Canada and the city of Barrie
(Rhythmfest) also recognised him as a Pioneer of Steel Pan. His most
recent accolade was in September 2018 when he was awarded the
prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canada-based Caribbean
Music and Entertainment Awards ceremony.

Ms.
Joanne Sibley

Joanne
Sibley’s early training in art came from her father who was a
professional artist. On weekends, father and daughter would paint and
draw together, both inside and out. Born in Canada, Joanne attended
University, graduated with a degree in Interior Design and worked
professionally in Canada for a few years.

In
1954 she married and moved to Jamaica where she worked with an
advertising firm and later in her husband’s architectural firm as a
designer. One of her commissions was the interior design of the then
new Prime Minister's residence. During those years she continued
painting exhibiting and becoming professionally known for portraits
and landscape. She and her husband also raised four children.

In
1980 the Sibleys moved to Cayman and became active in the Visual Art
Society. Since then Joanne has exhibited on many occasions and
received numerous awards. She was one of five artists who represented
Cayman in the Carib Art Exhibition in Curacao, and has had work
published in The Artists, the International Artist and Real Life
magazines. She has also had one of her images on a Cayman Islands
stamp.

Joanne’s
interest in painting has taken her on painting trips across Europe
and North America, and her work can be found in private collections
in a number of countries.

Ms.
Janet Walker

Janet
Walker was born and raised in Canada. She attended Bishop’s
University and then spent three years at the Ontario College of Art
in Toronto studying drawing and painting before marrying and moving
with her husband to Grand Cayman in the early 60’s.

The
first few years in Cayman were busy ones as Janet helped her husband
set up his law practice. It was after she had her three children that
she started to paint the wonderful landscapes and seascapes of the
Cayman Islands. She was particularly fascinated by the early
architecture and painted many buildings which sadly have long since
disappeared, and the charming, simple tree-lined roads and seashores.
It was a wonderful way to meet lovely people who welcomed her into
their yards to set up her easel and lose herself in a painting. At
that time, it was also perfectly safe to set up the easel on the side
of the road or on deserted beaches.

Janet
is a founding member of the Visual Arts Society and participated in
many of its shows. She has also been invited to exhibit her work at
the National Gallery. She paints in watercolour because she loves
the spontaneity of that medium, and enjoys working on site en plein
air, feeling the elements and hoping that she captures some of the
changing light and wind in her painting.

BRONZE
STAR FOR CREATIVITY AWARDEES

Mr.
Jawara Alleyne

Jawara
Alleyne is an award-winning fashion designer and artist currently
living and working in London. He completed his bachelor’s degree in
Fashion Design and Marketing at the London College of Fashion, one of
the top universities for fashion in the world. Since then, he has
worked with a host of international fashion brands and is currently a
Studio Coordinator for the Peter Pilotto label, managing the
operations of design development within the studio.

Jawara
is also the co-founder of Nii, a modeling agency that aims to
represent diverse faces in the fashion industry. He explores topics
of cultural interest within his work and pushes the boundaries that
define Caribbean fashion. Layers of Self is the second collection in
a series of self-exploration from the designer. In this collection
Jawara explores the concepts of the many layers that make up who we
are as individuals, commenting that though we have a common culture,
each of our identities are different and what it means to be
Caymanian and Caribbean differs for each individual.

Jawara
will be attending the Royal College of Arts to complete his MA where
he intends to explore his Caribbean identity.

Ms.
Melisha McField

Melisha
McField received her bachelor’s degree in Dance and Choreography
from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in
Kingston, Jamaica. While in Jamaica she danced and performed with
L’Acadco, one of Jamaica’s top dance companies, and filled the
role of Rehearsal Director for three years.

Upon
returning home in 2011, Melisha became a classroom teacher and a
dance instructor at Dance Unlimited. In 2017 she started her own
company Dreamchasers Cayman and staged her first Christmas production
“A Dreamchasers Christmas’ in December 2018.

Melisha
has been a member of the Self-Help Foundation for many years leading
numerous dance workshops and participating in the Talent Exposition
and has volunteered at John Gray High School with the YMCA dance
programme. She has also choreographed opening pieces for the Pirates
Week Office for the past six years as well as the Miss Teen Cayman
Islands Pageant and the National Children’s Festival where her
pieces have won gold, silver and bronze awards.

Melisha
is a dance instructor for CNCF summer camps and the Young at Arts
programmes. She represented the Cayman Islands at Carifesta and the
Aberdeen Culture Festival and led Dance Cayman to Carifesta XIII in
Barbados in 2017. In March 2018 Dreamchasers Cayman performed at
CNCF’s Red Sky at Night while six senior dancers represented Cayman
at Jamaica Dance Umbrella on the same weekend.

Melisha
believes that we are all creative spirits with many opportunities and
space to grow as an artist.

Ms.
Isi Obi

Designer
Isy Obi is the founder of Isy B., the award-winning fashion brand
from the Cayman Islands. Isy B. was recently named “one of the
Caribbean brands to watch” by Caribbean Journal, and since its
launch in 2015, has garnered an impressive list of successes, locally
and internationally. Isy was awarded ‘Lifestyle Designer of the
Year’ at Phoenix Fashion Week in 2016, and in 2017 her brand
successfully launched a capsule collection for Evine, the third
largest home-shopping network in the United States.

The
company’s designs have been featured on the Macy’s department
store website and on red carpets across the world, from the Grammys
to the CayFilm Cayman International Film Festival. In 2017 Isy was
selected to represent the Cayman Islands at Carifesta in Barbados.

Isy’s
aesthetic is influenced by island life, travel and artistic
expression in all forms. She creates intuitively and receives much of
her inspiration through dreams or during meditation. Each collection
is rooted in elegance and tells its story through the harmony and
flow of individual elements. Her aim is to create designs that come
from the heart and connect with her wearers at the heart level.

CHAIRMAN’S
AWARD

Mr.
Winston Salmon

Winston
James Salmon was born in England and has been residing in the Cayman
Islands for over 30 years. He is a trained science teacher and
accountant and a passionate lover of all aspects of the arts. Winston
never says “No” and has volunteered consistently at Gimistory,
Miss Lassie’s House, the production of ‘Doubt’, the CNCF
office, the Harquail Theatre costume room…to name just a few. He
is a two-time recipient of the CNCF Volunteer of the Year award.

VOLUNTEERS
OF THE YEAR

Mr.
Wardley Conolly

Ms.
Rebecca Wick

Mr.
Burton Ebanks

Mrs.
Donna Ebanks

SPONSOR
OF THE YEAR

Hopscotch

Hopscotch
Productions’ relationship with the Cayman National Cultural
Foundation spans decades, and stems from the desire of Hopscotch
founder, the late Charles ‘Greggie G’ Gregory, to help promote
and preserve Cayman’s rich musical and cultural heritage. This
shared passion with CNCF has translated into thousands of hours of
studio recording, lighting, audio engineering and stage production
services happily provided, and often donated by Hopscotch to the
Foundation. From Red Sky at Night to Gimistory to CI Folk Singers
performances and countless other productions and events, Hopscotch is
proud to support CNCF in its continuous efforts to grow arts and
culture in the Cayman Islands. The Hopscotch team is also committed
to carrying on the legacy of our founder Greggie G through showcasing
and developing the incredible performing and musical talent that
exists in the Cayman Islands.