The Guyana Creative Business Society, an umbrella organisation established as a representative body of all art forms in Guyana, was launched last evening at the Umana Yana.
Delivering the charge, Gillian Griffith-Edwards, of the Small Business Bureau, noted the importance of unity and formality for pushing the arts in Guyana and soliciting support from relevant stakeholders.
“… There is no mention in the sector breakdown of craft. No arts and craft. Why do you think that’s so? Is it because you’re insignificant? It is because you’re informal.
And because of you being informal, nobody has been able to measure what you’re doing,” Griffith-Edwards stated.
Wayne Barrow, Director of Interweave Solutions and a member of the society, related that the group was formed out of a need for an association that was involved in bringing together all groups involved in pushing arts and craft.
The collaboration, he noted, was being fostered with the intent of reaping benefits such as facilitating mass production, enabling reduced prices on goods from purchasing in bulk, providing training to members of the association and helping to “augment the senses” to recognise entrepreneurial activities. The group will also be responsible for organising a calendar of events.
Griffith-Edwards, during her presentation, also called for artists to be transparent, accountable, committed, and above all, provide quality products. “Where is the Guyana brand?
The time has come that we must now be exporting products and they’re lost on the Caribbean market,” she said, while encouraging the group to think global.
Also launched last evening at the Umana Yana was the group’s Christmas Exhibition and Sale, featuring a variety of craft items. The exhibition will continue today, and then Monday through Wednesday from 10 am to 6.30 pm.
