Sydney Bartley

Retired Permanent Secretary and former Principal Director of Culture and Creative Industries Policy in the Government of Jamaica, Sydney Bartley now operates from Sydney Bartley Global Consultancy Services. Through this consultancy, Sydney Bartley has provided management services as the lead consultant for the staging of CARIFESTA XII in Haiti in 2015, for the development of the National Policy on Culture and Creative Economy of Jamaica in 2016 and for other events in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Sydney Bartley comes with vast experience in Cultural Policy, Creative Industries and Events Planning. He has been Chairman of CARICOM Regional Cultural Committee, Co-Chair of the CARICOM Task Force on the Development of Regional Creative Industries, Co-Chair of the Committee for the Reinventing of CARIFESTA (Caribbean Festival of the Arts) and Vice Chair of the Inter-American Cultural Committee of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Mr. Bartley’s work included leading the Caribbean negotiation with the European Union that led to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation. Additionally, he was the main representative of the Government of Jamaica in the negotiation of culture and trade agreements with other countries, including the UNESCO Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Because of his fluency in Spanish, he was also leader of Government of Jamaica negotiations with Latin America within the framework of culture and creative industries. He was also for many years responsible for the oversight of Jamaica’s public sector cultural agencies and National Emancipation and Independence Festivals in Jamaica.

Sydney Bartley also participated extensively in international dialogue on all areas of culture and creative industries. These include as panelist or keynote speaker in global conferences in such countries as South Africa, France, Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Belgium, Senegal, Colombia and Chile, on such topics as Can Cultures Dialogue with each other?, Culture and Trade, Culture and National Identity, Contribution of Culture to National Economies, Creative Industries: The Way Forward, and others.

Sydney Bartley represented the Caribbean in the 2018 and 2019 EULAC discussions regarding the need to solidify the partnerships between the EU and the Caribbean and Latin America for the advancement of the creative sector and the promotion of cultural routes within the framework of cultural policies. He has also served as an independent consultant to UNESCO in the study of cultural policies in the Caribbean Region as well as in the SIDS Caribbean. He now provides consultancy services for the Jamaican Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport and the CARICOM Culture Desk.