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Cultural practitioners engage in discussions on the development of Guyana’s creative industries
On February 26th, attention was turned on the development of Guyana’s creative industries this morning with the hosting of the 2014 Republic of Guyana Lecture Series Workshop which focused on Creative Industries as a Pillar for Economic and Cultural Development. The workshop was held at the Umana Yana and attracted persons involved in music, dance, craft, media productions, and writers. At the opening of the Guyana Music Network last year, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony had promised to facilitate such a workshop.
“Today we break new ground…instead of just reaching into the past, we want to grasp the future…we are embarking on discussion that would lead to a blueprint for the development of the creative economy in Guyana,” he said at the start of his presentation.
Prior to sharing those sentiments, the Minister had stressed the importance of the Republic Lecture Series which saw presentations dug far into Guyana’s history and helped to shape peoples’ perspectives on the country’s rich legacy. “This legacy has been undervalued and underappreciated because of the chronic shortage of intellectual discussion, availability of reading material and opportunities to debate,” he added.
While sharing from John Hawkins book ‘The Creative Economy’ (2nd edition), Minister Anthony pointed out that the core creative sectors contribute over 12 percent of Europe’s, America’s and Japan’s GDP and a higher proportion of their growth. He added that in China the creative industries contribute a fast increasing 4-5 percent, rising to 10-11 percent in Beijing and Shanghai.
The growth of this sector has prompted many countries to rethink its approach to the cultural industries in the hope that if properly aligned people would be able to reap economic benefits.
The Minister recognized that the first major barrier to the development of this sector in the developing world is overcoming pervading skepticism. “There are too many people who do not believe that this sector can work and we need to change this prevailing attitude,” he said.
Minister Anthony also highlighted the need to build an enabling legislative framework for the development of the cultural industries. This, he noted, would require updating existing legislation and in some cases developing new legislation while at the same time strengthening the policy framework. This must include a set of policies that can promote the development of these industries.
Importantly, “continuous investments in people are needed…we need to show how we teach and how we promote learning in our education system to allow students to embrace creativity, rather than snuff it out of the school curriculum,” the Minister said.
Further, Minister Anthony called for the creation of an environment that allow peoples ideas to intersect and cross-fertilize to produce new ideas and innovations. This also requires the adequate funding for the sector.
“We need to normalize how banks and investors look at this sector, we need to change the perception that the sector is high risk, high failure and therefore will give poor yields on loans…we need to mainstream the funding where a cultural entrepreneur can go to the bank and be able to get low cost financing,” the Minister explained.
He emphasized that the growth and development of the sector has boomed because of its synergies with information technologies. The participants were urged to not only be passive users of technology but become creators of technology as there are existing opportunities.
There are many varying definitions for creative industries, and in this regard, Minister Anthony emphasized that the best suited model for Guyana should be derived. It is anticipated that today’s session is just the start of discussions on Guyana’s creative industries. Another important area is research and documentation which will highlight the impact of cultural/creative industries on the economy.
Also addressing the gathering today was the Programme Manager of Culture and Community Development – Caricom, Dr. Hilary Brown. In her presentation she highlighted that cultural practitioners, artists and entrepreneurs are at a very good place.
“We are poised at an important moment in the development of our region and the creative industries sector and this is so because Caricom governments have increasingly been acknowledging that the development of dynamic and indigenous cultural industries is an important strategy to reduce our susceptibility to dramatic and external shocks in the world economy,” she said.
Dr. Brown further explained that this is important because of the vulnerability of small states. In tension to change comparative advantage of the industry into competitive advantage.
During the day the participants were taken through presentations and discussions by Professor Al Creighton, Dr. Paloma Mohamed, Clinton Urling and Teni Housty, and at the end of the day the group is expected to come up with a blue print for making the creative industries a pillar of economic and cultural development in Guyana. The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Dennis Howard.