Dear Editor,
In just three days the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government will be celebrating its 1st Anniversary since its return to office on August 2nd, 2020. But what has the poor Artist Community and destitute Guyanese population to celebrate? It is likely that one year will pass and we are nowhere near yet to meet the “new” Minister of Culture. In its 1st year in Government, two mammoth sized budgets were passed and whatever finance was allocated to the Culture Ministry, not a dollar has dribbled down to the artist community. Artists have works to sell in both categories, paintings and sculptures which can be acquired for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, The National Collection and other public places. Whatever is the Government’s motive or agenda for its neglect of the small artist community it has impacted negatively, aborting the creativity in many young Guyanese. The manner in which some individuals used social media, to descend like vultures on a young artist who mirrored the horror story of a nation, reduced to the status of mendicants with outstretched hands awaiting handouts. The artist was forced to repaint his canvas and issue a public apology. Art is an extension of society, it does not exist of and for itself. Art is the product of a person in society and society, therefore, is intrinsic to art’s identity and purpose. The artist, he/she creates symbolic projections of human ideals or at the very least clues of what people want, are, aspirations, or dream about.
The delay in the return of Artworks sent from Guyana to the “Benedicto IV Mighty Echo of the Amazon Rainforest – Revelation of the Guiana’s Exhibition” which was held in September 2020 and extended to November 2020 in the Netherlands ended and the artworks finally returned to Guyana after 9 months in a storage facility while awaiting payment of shipping fares for the return to Guyana. Had it not been for the letters to the Editor by Ms. Ryhaan Shah and renowned Guyanese Artist Stanley Greaves and an Editorial in the Stabroek News (SN) “Whither the Arts?” of Wednesday, May 19th, 2021, those works would probably still be in the storage facility in the Netherlands. I would like to thank Stabroek News for its support, though I am still awaiting the return of my painting now that they are in Guyana. The Ministry of Culture and Castellani House have done a great disservice to those artists who participated in that exhibition. At least a press statement should have been sent to the Media Houses concerning the exhibition, the purpose, and the names of the artists. It would have given some credibility to our small Artist Community that is still striving under the most difficult circumstances to represent Guyana on the International scenario. To conclude, I have produced for the PPP Anniversary Celebration, a graphic illustration that I would like to share with your readers. It is titled “The Death of Bread”. For most poor Guyanese bread is dead, with the ever-increasing cost of living, how many Guyanese with large families can afford to buy a small sliced bread?
Sincerely,
Desmond Alli
General Secretary Guyana
United
Artists GUA
