GT&T invests $10M in art and culture

May 24, 2014 News

The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GT&T) has signed a $10M Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sports, yesterday which will see the publication of three books documenting various pieces of art from the National Art Gallery.
The money will be given to the Culture Ministry for the publication of the books within a period of three years. The first book will be named, Panorama: A Portrait of Guyana. It will feature 52 pieces of visual arts from the national collection.
The signing was done at Cara Lodge by the Minister of Culture, Dr. Frank Anthony and Radha Krishna Sharma, the telephone company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Minister Anthony and RK Sharma sign the MOU

According to Sharma, officials from the telephone company and the Ministry had a discussion on what contribution GT&T can make to the national collective expression of cultural and artistic talent.
“We recognized the excellent national collection that we have and within that context we have decided to embark on this project,” GT&T’s boss said.
He further added that, “What we have done is look at the different sectors and we have recognized that culture is a very critical thing, every society needs to embrace the culture nuances of its nation and this is celebrated in different forms. Art form in itself is a celebration of the aspiration of its people.”
The CEO said yesterday’s MOU signing was not the first that had been signed by the telephone company for this year but instead, the third. “Early this year we signed a MOU with the Tourism and Hospitality Association at a value of $9M over a three year period. It is not a coincidence that we choose tourism, we choose tourism because tourism has a multi-sectoral contribution towards the economy. It is an emerging sector and they need the support.”
He further added that the telephone company signed another MOU just a few weeks ago with the University of Guyana for a total of $60M.
“That was the largest single monetary commitments that we have given. University of Guyana is a national institution and we want to give back to our people and country,” RK Sharma noted.
Minister Anthony thanked the telephone company for the support given to assist in the publication of art works.
The Culture Minister said that officials at his Ministry discussed about having the art works which is stored at the Castellani House be published but nothing was done.
“As far as I recall it was a lot of discussion but we didn’t move off in getting the project done until we had this discussion with Mr. Sharma,” the Minister said. He added, “…a lot of people do not come to view these exhibits and we want art to be for everyone, we want them to appreciate it.”
Getting the work of local artistes published is a good idea according to the Minister who added, “People would get to see what we have in the collection.”