Linden Art and Craft Association seeking to broaden market base for members' handiwork
Stabroek News
December 8, 2006
The Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) in collaboration with the Office of the Delegation of the European Union in Guyana are joining forces to help Linden art and craft producers broaden the market base for their products.
Members of the group known as the Linden Art and Craft Association (LACA) are currently holding an exhibition of their work in the library of the EU office at Croal street and Sendall Place in Georgetown. A spokesman for the office told Stabroek Business that the offer to make the venue available for the art and craft display was made by the EU to assist LEAP in promoting the work of the Linden artists. LEAP is an EU-funded project that seeks to provide technical expertise and financial resources to support the development of businesses in the region ten community.
The art and craft display and sale features paintings, leather goods, tie-dyed fabric and wooden craft and is expected to run on Fridays for the next two weeks. LACA members have been receiving various forms of support from LEAP including incubator accommodation in its Linden complex, technical assistance with the preparation of business plans and financial support in the production of their handicraft.
President of LACA Irene Bacchus-Holder told Stab-roek Business that the Association was seeking to use the current exhibition as a springboard to establish a wider market for their products outside of region ten.
Bacchus said that over the next few months LACA would be seeking to stage other displays and sales at venues in Georgetown including a street exhibition, possibly before Christmas. Bacchus said that LACA was also seeking the support of the major retail outlets in Georgetown for the marketing of their products.
The commercial potential of local art and craft has come into sharper focus in recent weeks in the light of the approaching Cricket World Cup. Art and craft selected by CWC 2007 as official World Cup souvenirs will be marketed in the various participating countries and will receive worldwide publicity through the CWC website.
Late last week co-proprietor of the Calabash Gift Shoppe Elizabeth Deane- Hughes disclosed to Stabroek Business that CWC 2007 had given the green light for more than thirty samples of local art and craft to be marketed as official Cricket World Cup souvenirs. Works by at least one LACA member are among those approved by CWC.
Bacchus-Holder told Staboek Business that while LACA welcomed the news that some of its craft has been endorsed as official Cricket World Cup souvenirs the Association was still concerned about the creation of a wider local, regional and international market for its products.
She is supporting a call made several weeks by Deane-Hughes for more official support for the creation of more marketing opportunities for the local art and craft industry as a whole.