Concerned about cultural industries
Little to no growth has taken place in the cultural industries sector in recent years, and Khadija Collymore, spokesperson on Culture for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), says this should be a cause for concern.
Speaking during a recently held virtual panel discussion to discuss the vision for sustainable development, Collymore charged that the Government has been virtually silent on the way forward for the cultural industries in this country.
“At this point it is like crickets when it comes to the cultural industry. We have not heard anything from the Government on their plans or what they’re going to do; how they’re going to assist the stakeholders at this point. At this point, stakeholders are disappointed and upset,” she stated.
Collymore, noting that the stakeholders in the industry are the “creatives in society” who she said “carry our culture near and far”, insisted that they should not be ignored or neglected. She made the point while contending that there is a need for the Government to invest in the sector and build out the enabling environment that would allow the sector to flourish.
“I believe that digitisation is the way to go with our cultural industry. I believe at this time we should be pushing our creatives to create and a creative can only create if their needs are met. Needs are met when you know how you’re going to feed your family, when you know how you’re going to pay your bills. Yes, we’ve had stuff from the NCF [National Cultural Foundation], like the digital art gallery, etc., but there is more that needs to be done within the cultural industry,” she maintained.
Referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, she said persons are in need of entertainment, and suggested that a comprehensive creative plan should have been formulated to assist persons in the entertainment sector, utilising the State-owned media agency.
“I believe that we should use the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation as a base for our cultural industry at this time. Yes, there was the turning of 94.7 into 100 per cent Barbadian, but at this point, most people don’t even know about that, most people don’t have a clue about this. Additionally, we can use CBC TV 8 as a base for our creatives,” she stated.
Adding to Collymore’s comments, the DLP’s spokesperson on Education, LaShawna Griffith, said as a cultural practitioner herself, she can appreciate the concerns being raised and thinks that the Government missed an opportunity to do more.
“...One of the things that I said last time when I spoke, is that the cultural practitioners could have been used in many ways such as digitising the educational sector,” she said.
Griffith suggested that some books could have been made into films and that way it would have provided work for actors, actresses, song persons, musicians and camera operators.
“Culture is one of the thriving industries in the world. The orange economy is over a billion dollars and thriving and some scholarly articles claim that the orange economy is one of the things now that is more profitable than oil. So what I think Government needs to look at, is the ways in which we can tap into the orange economy,” she contended.