V.I. Code tit. 3, § 408 (2019)
2019 US Virgin Islands Code|Title 3 - Executive|Chapter 22 - Department of Planning and Natural Resources|§ 408. Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute

 (a) The Legislature of the Virgin Islands finds and declares that: (1) The people of the Virgin Islands have a unique culture that is defined by their customs, values, traditions, arts, skills, speech, and mannerisms, which have been practiced for many generations. (2) The Virgin Islands culture has been a source of strength and a sense of identity for its people. (3) The diverse ethnicity of the Virgin Islands people, which includes Amerindian, African, European, and Caribbean/West Indian heritages, has contributed to their spiritual well-being and cultural richness. (4) The culture of the Virgin Islands has been recognized and documented as unique, authentic, and laudatory by Virgin Islands scholars and the Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. (5) Culture has a fundamental influence on the desires, needs and character of a people, particularly youth and children. (6) The preservation and promotion of a peoples' cultural heritage can be an affirmation of their existence that has a strong positive effect on their political, vocational and social structures. (7) The Virgin Islands culture is replete with heroes and heroines, particularly of African descent, whose personal contributions and sacrifices and their insistence on human rights and justice ignited the torch of Virgin Islands liberty. (8) A society that fails to preserve and promote its culture may lose its identity, its structural fabric and, ultimately, its reason for being. (9) Each generation has an obligation to pass on to its children and youth the cultural identity that is the root of its existence. (10) It is appropriate and necessary to preserve, protect, and promote Virgin Islands culture in order to contribute to an understanding of the complex problems of our society, to encourage unity and economic viability of all of the Territory's people, to respect the tradition bearers and their lasting contributions, and to celebrate the Virgin Islands example throughout the Caribbean as a people of strong belief in freedom and self-development. (11) In order to best preserve, promote, revitalize and disseminate Virgin Islands culture, there should be established a Virgin Islands Cultural Institute. (b) As used in this section, the following definitions apply: (1) “Virgin Islands culture” means the traditional customs, folkways, belief systems, music, dances, stories, dress, food, sayings, language, art forms, occupations, crafts and other expressions of the spirit of the people of the Virgin Islands. The term includes, but is not limited to: (A) folkways which refers to storytelling, Anansi stories, riddles and greetings; (B) belief systems which refers to superstitions, cultural ceremonies associated with holiday observances, funerals and burials, bush baths, obeah, hurricane supplication day; (C) music which refers to instrumental and vocal forms such as cariso, “fungi” or scratch band, calypso and steel pan; (D) dances which refers to the bamboula, quadrille and calypso style; (E) food which refers to recipes and ways of cooking pate, fry fish and johnny cakes, red pea soup, kalaloo, mafe, whelks, conch, souse, salt fish, fungi, tarts, black cake, vienna cake, sweet bread and jawbone; (F) sayings which refers to “Today fo' yo', tomorrow fo' me”, “Monkey know wha tree to climb” and the like; (G) language which refers to the local dialect “Ah come, yo ah come” and to the Dutch Creole; (H) art forms which refers to needlecraft such as crochet, embroidery, hardanger and tatting; (I) occupations which refers to masonry, joinery, cabinet making, fishing, farming, dressmaking and tailoring; (J) crafts and other expressions which refers to basketry, broom making, furniture designing, kite making, fish pot making, mocko jumbies, carnival clowns and other creative expressions of the spirit of the people. (2) “Material culture” means the flora and fauna including, but not limited to, seaside grape, mahogany, flambouyant, soursop, mango, and herbs such as chivel, congo root, man-better-man, turpentine, black wattle, lemon grass, anise, maubi bark and flowers such as yellow cedar, hibiscus, bougainvillea, and fauna such as iguana, yellow breast, woodslaves and ground lizards and architectural structures such as windmills, forts, Great houses, wattle and daub, and vernacular structures. (3) “Tradition bearer” means any person whose practice of Virgin Islands culture in a specific form is or was renowned and exemplary. (c) There is established within the Department of Planning and Natural Resources a Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute (hereinafter referred to as the “Institute”). The Institute shall consist of nine members, appointed by the Governor. Four members shall reside on St. Croix. Four members shall reside on St. Thomas, and one member on St. John. In making nominations to the Institute, the Governor shall give due consideration to the recommendations of representative Virgin Islands cultural organizations such as the Friends of the Virgin Islands Institute of Culture. Appointed members of the Institute shall be individuals who, by their experience, participation, creativity and interest embody Virgin Islands culture. (d) Appointed members of the Institute shall serve terms of three years. Each may serve until his successor is qualified. A member of the Institute who is not an employee of the Government of the United States Virgin Islands shall receive a per diem of $50.00 for each day he attends a meeting of the Institute plus any necessary and authorized travel and/or other expenses incurred in the discharge of his duties as a member of the Institute. The Institute shall elect a Chairman and such other officers as it deems necessary. The Chairman may appoint such staff as may be necessary to execute the powers and duties of the Institute; provided, however, that the expenses of the Institute, including staff salaries, shall not exceed the amounts available therefor. (e) The Institute shall have the following powers and duties: (1) to preserve, protect, promote, support, revitalize and disseminate Virgin Islands culture; (2) to award educational grants and scholarships to persons studying Virgin Islands culture and/or training other persons in such culture; (3) to organize and produce workshops, performances, festivals, exhibits or other means of displaying Virgin Islands culture; (4) to establish and maintain an archive for Virgin Islands culture, and to procure, receive, purchase and collect all manner of materials therefor; (5) to provide educational materials on Virgin Islands culture for use in Virgin Islands schools; (6) to prepare pamphlets, periodicals, or other forms of reference materials on Virgin Islands culture for general circulation and use; (7) to receive donations, gifts and bequests for the purpose of executing its powers and duties; (8) to cooperate with government or private entities in the promotion, preservation, protection and revitalization of Virgin Islands culture; (9) to identify, by recognition, commemoration, or other appropriate means the tradition bearers of Virgin Islands culture; (10) to determine, by democratic vote of the Institute, what constitutes Virgin Islands culture and material culture; provided, however that no item listed as a part of the Virgin Islands culture by law may be eliminated by the Institute; (11) to report, not more than 60 days after the last day of each fiscal year, to the Governor and the Legislature its activities and programs including a complete accounting of its expenditures, revenues received and obligations.