Six months in… $20M Creative Industries Funding Initiative yet to take off

Jun 20, 2019 News

The Department of Social Cohesion of the Ministry of the Presidency has not indicated the awardees of its pilot Guyana Fund for Cultural and Creative Industries (GFCCI). And it’s already halfway into the year.

Director of Culture, Tamika Boatswain

Last December, Kaieteur News reported that Cultural Policy Advisor to the Department of Social Cohesion, Ruel Johnson, suggested the initiative to the Department to ensure that young, Guyanese know that the local environment would become more conducive to the development of their talents.
The project was added to the Budget 2019 roster and was allocated $20M. The viability of this project would determine whether Government rolls out an even more solidly funded long term initiative.
In early March, the government called for submissions from creative entrepreneurs, with original proposals of cultural and creative projects that have already been developed, with well thought out plans for their commercialization and sustainability.
The initiative is currently under the purview of Director of Culture, Tamika Boatswain.
“Projects which include collaborations and have demonstrated to benefit large numbers of artists, especially women, youth and out of city participants from across Guyana will be ideal,” the advert had stated.
The funding was offered for work across all creative industries; for marketing, distribution, branding and development of new cultural products; procurement of equipment; creation of intellectual goods, patents and copyrights; research and designs of innovative local products, like gaming, fashion and animation.
It was noted that focus for funding will be on productions and publications across all creative industries; marketing, distribution and branding of creative products; the development of new cultural products such as festivals; procurement of specialized equipment in support of a particular type of creative production; the creation of intellectual goods, patents and copyrights; and research and designs of innovative new Guyanese products in the creative industries, such as gaming, animation, fashion and condiments/recipes using local content/contexts.
The deadline for the submission of proposals was March 22, 2019. Three months later, no awards have been made.
The Department of Social Cohesion has not provided a timeline for the completion of this project – let alone, for the awards to be made.
Kaieteur News has interviewed and featured many creatives – young and old – who have related that the local environment for persons aspiring to be in that field is discouraging and lacking of the support that is necessary to inspire the next generation of world-class artists.
Complaints range from lack of support from government and the need for copyright legislation, to a culture of disregard for the arts, in favour of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Guyana has not had luck with this sort of initiative.
The Bharrat Jagdeo-led administration had attempted a Sports and Arts Development Fund (SADF), launched in 2007. It was the subject of widespread controversy. The Art Development Fund for the period January 1, 2012 to May 31, 2015 had been subjected to a forensic audit in 2015, revealing troubling disparities and breaches of accounting and asset management procedures.
The audit, which was conducted by forensic auditor Lester Bowen, had found that approximately $167M included in allocations by the budgets of 2012-2014 were not accounted for, or more than half of the total expenditure approved by the National Assembly. It has been referred to as a slush fund.
In a letter to Kaieteur News last year, Johnson had said that “… even the most progressive initiatives such as this can, if sufficient caution is not taken, suffer from fairly avoidable implementation hurdles that endanger their long-term viability, particularly with regard to governance.”
It is now up to Director Tamika Boatswain to pull through with this execution of this project.

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