Funding, training, marketing key agenda items
Local art and craft producers are upbeat about the prospects for the outcome of the September 18 national art and craft ‘summit’ where they plan to mount a lobby for a significantly increased measure of both public and private sector support for the industry.
Concerns over what is widely regarded as the stunted growth of the local art and craft industry have persisted for decades and Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Art and Craft Producers Association (GACPA) Patricia Helwig told Stabroek Business last week that the decision to stage the one-day gathering at the National Conference Centre which arose out of a recent meeting between representatives of GACPA and President Bharrat Jagdeo represented “a major opportunity to move the industry forward.”
Helwig said that local art and craft producers were also upbeat about the potential of the September 18 forum to provide the sector as a whole as well as individual producer with a higher public profile and with the impetus to take the creative industry to the next level. She disclosed that the Association had recruited a consultant to assist members in the preparation of a strategy paper that would serve as a basis for their engagement with public and private sector officials during the one-day session. The paper, which Helwig said is in the process of being refined is expected to address issues which GACPA believes are critical to the forward movement of the sector including access to materials, financing the industry, branding, training, technology and regional and international marketing.
Another member of GACPA, Irene Bacchus-Holder, told Stabroek Business that the industry had faced a “longstanding” constraint arising out of the inability of art and craft producers to access lending from commercial banks. She said that while some art and craft producers may have managed to secure loans from the local banking system she doubted that any of those loans had been influenced by the viability of their operations. “Art and craft producers, on the whole, have never been able to secure the collateral to qualify them for commercial Bank lending,” Bacchus-Holder said adding that she believed that the industry had done more than enough to secure greater backing from the banking sector.
Stabroek Business understands that representatives of the commercial banking sector have been invited to attend the September 18 gathering and that art and craft producers are likely to use the gathering to lobby the bankers directly in an effort to secure a more liberal lending posture towards the industry.
Both Helwig and Bacchus-Holder conceded that while some local art and craft producers had been able to build successful business operations, the industry, in the main, comprised small operators and could not properly be described as a successful business sector. Bacchus-Holder told Stabroek Business that while some local producers had even been able to sell some of their products overseas, there was no consistency to those markets.
Marketing and access to markets is likely to be a key issue at the ‘summit.’ Helwig explained that art and craft producers, particularly those operating in rural and hinterland areas were largely unfamiliar with modern marketing methods, a circumstance that continued to stunt the growth of their operations. She said that during the recent meeting with President Jagdeo he had promised to fund the establishment of a GACPA website which the Association will use as a marketing tool for the industry. Helwig told Stabroek Business that the Association also intended to take additional steps to provide members with basic business organization and marketing skills.
The Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) has facilitated limited opportunities for participation by local art and craft producers in regional and international trade fairs and Helwig disclosed that the GACPA expects to be represented at a fair being held in Berlin later this year to showcase Guyanese art and craft products.
Stabroek Business has learnt that government has already given approval for GACPA to have access to a state –owned building for use as its Secretariat. Helwig told Stabroek Business that the Association is expected to begin work in the near future to set up its headquarters which will include an administrative secretariat, a training facility and an area that will be used for the exhibition and sale of members’ work. She said that the Association is expected to secure assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in financing the setting up of the secretariat.
Local art and craft producers are also expected to use the forum to raise the issue of access to raw materials which Bacchus said was “a challenge” for the sector. She said that producers of leather and wooden goods frequently face difficulties associated with the scarcity of these commodities and, in the case of wood, the export of species that are popular in the industry.
Meanwhile, Helwig said that art and craft producers will also be seeking to raise the profile of the industry by engaging prominent state and private sector agencies on the issue of providing display space for local art and craft. She said she believed that these agencies could buy into the promotion of the industry by committing themselves to displaying the work of Guyanese art and craft producers.