Rupununi Music & Arts Festival Director awarded MBE at Buckingham Palace
Bob on stage with Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock at the Festival in February 2018
Bob on stage with Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock at the Festival in February 2018

DIRECTOR of the Rupununi Music & Arts Festival, Dr. Bob Ramdhanie has been awarded ‘the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (MBE) for his contribution to the arts in the United Kingdom. Dr. Ramdhanie who received his award, which is granted by the Queen to an individual who has performed ‘outstanding service to the community or local ‘hands-on’ service’,and was presented the award by Prince William at Buckingham Palace,shared the news with friends and family in Guyana. “It was a surprise to me,” he said. “But I’m delighted to know that so many organisations and individuals in the UK nominated me for this award.” Professor David Dabydeen,the London-based Guyanese academic and Patron of the Festival was one of many who supported the nomination and added that “it was well deserved!”

Bob is of Trinidadian/Guyanese parentage and has been actively involved in the arts in the UK for over 40 years, initiating and developing arts programmes and projects within local communities as well as working on a diverse range of arts festivals. His working career has been challenging, interesting and fulfilling, with him finding immense satisfaction both within ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ organisations. With a Higher National Diploma in Electrical Engineering (De Montfort University), an MA in Social Work (Leicester University), an MBA (Aston University) and a PhD (Caribbean Studies, Warwick University), he pioneered many dynamic arts programmes, contributing to social cohesion, community education, entrepreneurial development in the arts and arts management, working in partnership with communities for the benefit of communities.

He established Kokuma Dance Company in 1977 and was appointed the first Director of the Black Dance Development Trust (BDDT), the first organisation representing the interests of the African & Caribbean dance sector in the UK. At the turn of the 21st Century, he was commissioned by Arts Council England to research ‘Does London need a Black Dance Centre?’ and later, to investigate the needs of the African dance sector and infrastructure development in the East Midlands.

As a Senior Probation Officer, and believing in the power of the arts as a catalyst for change in human existence, he was hugely successful in establishing and directing two major centres for artistic cultural expression within the Probation Service. He later founded a state of the art recording studio and arts centre – CMAT (Centre for Music and Arts Technology) being its Director for over 10 years. In 1987 Bob co-founded the internationally acclaimed a cappella quintet Black Voices, touring internationally with the company for several decades.

Bob is a cheerful, positive and confident human being, having worked both at the grassroots level and in senior positions and throughout most of his life, has been actively supporting and promoting the dynamic evolution of African and Caribbean arts and education. He has served on numerous Boards and Committees, nationally and internationally, focusing on education, arts development and African & Caribbean arts and was a member of various panels with Arts Council England for several years.

Bob is retired from conventional daily working routines but continues to inspire young people in the arts through mentoring, training, coaching volunteers and through research and development in the UK and the Caribbean. His enthusiasm and passion for the arts have not diminished but have brought him to the grasslands of Guyana where, with Colin Edwards (Rock View, Annai), a wide range of sponsors including the Government, Banks DIH, TGA, ASL, Rent-A-Tent, plus a team of keen, committed friends and volunteers, he successfully launched the country’s first camping, world music festival, ‘The Rupununi Music & Arts Festival’ in 2014.

Bob continues to research and write about the arts and is currently working on two dance books which will be published next year. He continues to share his diverse working experiences with the team as collectively they aim to establish the Rupununi Music & Arts Festival as a major cultural event that would attract thousands of national and international visitors.

For his contribution to the arts in the UK, the Drum Arts Centre awarded Bob the first Arts and Cultural Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and, in the Queens New Year’s Honours List 2018, he was awarded an MBE.

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