"JCDC Gold Medalist Exhibition (2025)"
October 2-15, 2025
Olympia Main Gallery
Exhibition Recap
On Thursday, October 2, 2025, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) officially opened its Gold Medal Winners Exhibition at The Olympia Gallery. The showcase featured the most outstanding works from this year’s JCDC Visual Arts Competition, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, textiles, photography, collage, assemblage and digital art.
The Jamaica Visual Arts Competition is an annual national event open to artists living in Jamaica, aged six years and older. It invites submissions in any medium and encourages creative expressions that explore social issues and innovative ideas. Entries are accepted across thirteen disciplines: ceramics, collage, digital illustration, drawing, fibre art, fashion design, jewellery, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, text-based design, and textile art. Submissions are judged in six age-based classes: Class 1 (6–8 years), Class 2 (9–11 years), Class 3 (12–14 years), Class 4 (15–17 years), Class 5 (18–20 years), and Class 6 (21 years and older), with each class adjudicated separately.
The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, The Honourable Olivia Grange, delivered the opening address, commending the “growing interest and vibrancy of the Jamaican visual arts sector.” She highlighted that this year’s competition recorded the highest number of entries in a decade and praised the exhibited works as powerful “reflections of our culture, our identity, and our lived experiences.” Artists received their medals earlier at an awards ceremony held at the Confucius Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI).
The Gold Medal Winners Exhibition will remain on view at The Olympia Gallery until October 15. Following its close, the JCDC will present a series of regional exhibitions featuring the award-winning pieces: Kingston and St. Catherine (October 18–30), Mandeville, Manchester (November 1–13), and St. Ann and St. James (November 15–27).
Exhibition highlights
Exhibited works
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Exhibition Recap
Jamaicans across the island will have the opportunity to view the medal-winning pieces in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) 2025 Visual Arts Competition at regional exhibitions being staged by the agency. Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange officially opened the display featuring the works of the 63 gold medal-winners at the Olympia Art Centre in St Andrew last Thursday (October . The gold medal exhibition, which closes on October 15, will be followed by a series of regional displays between October 18 and November 27.
Dr Winston Campbell, visual arts development specialist at the JCDC, said the regional exhibitions will showcase the award-winning pieces by artists from various parishes. “We will show not just the gold medal-winning artworks, but also the silver medal-winning artworks and the bronze medal-winning artworks. That will be the difference between the [Gold Medal Exhibition] and all the other exhibitions,” he said.
Artists from St Thomas, Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine will be showcased in simultaneous exhibitions held in Kingston and St Catherine from October 18 to October 30. The exhibition then moves to Mandeville from November 1 to November 13 to showcase artists from the parish along with Clarendon and St Elizabeth. From November 15 to 27, exhibitions will be held in St Ann and St James.