By Arianne S Richardson
Without clear and intentional cultural policy, administrations will continuously drop the ball on cultural development, and by extension, the orange economy. In my previous op-ed piece on the orange economy, I referenced a draft cultural policy that was written in 2006 and never formally adopted. This lack of adoption is significant because cultural policy guides the government on matters related to our culture, its preservation and its development. Without the guidance of this document, the orange economy suffers and many aspects of our culture fade.
Examples of policies
- Duty rates and value-added tax on essential creative and cultural industry items.
- The addition of popular items to the duty-free listing — ie cameras.
- The creation and implementation of Bahamas Carnival.
- Subsequent privatization of the Bahamas Carnival festival.
- Creation of a Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC).
- The government’s funding of Junkanoo festival(s).
While there is currently no formal document informing the government’s management of culture and the orange economy, countless decisions related to culture and cultural development are being made. For instance, if you pay attention during budget season, you’ll notice that the Department of Culture under the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MYSC) is hardly ever on the receiving end of increased financial resources. As a matter of fact, in October of this year, the government decreased the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture’s allocation by about $1.9 million.
Year after year, someone somewhere decides to decrease the MYSC budget. There are obvious reasons for the shifting of allocations annually, but this pattern of decreasing culture’s allotment gives us a pretty good indication of its meagre standing on the national agenda.
While the written policy is crucial, cultural policy as a whole is much more than just lengthy scribbles. It comprises anything the government does (like decreasing the Department of Culture’s budget) that affects the orange economy, but sometimes what they don’t do as well (like increasing the Department of Culture’s budget).
The move from gig economy to industry will require carefully crafted and developed policies and would create an environment where people can explore and hone creative talents and abilities. It will also foster an environment for job creation and, dare I say, careers even. This can only happen if we have clear and intentional policies that develop and perpetuate conditions where creatives and cultural practitioners are encouraged to be entrepreneurial. This encouragement can take the form of grants, education, concessions, allotment of physical spaces, creation of year-round opportunities — basically, better policies.
We often take inspiration from the development of key policies in other countries and in this instance I’d recommend Barbados’ National Cultural Foundation (NCF), which rose out of policy. Their NCF is a statutory body that “stimulates and facilitates development of culture” generally. But it is also expected to leave no stone unturned to assist persons interested in developing cultural expressions. Developing a similarly structured organization separate from the Department of Culture would allow for a non-partisan body that transcends changes in administration to focus on our creative and cultural development.
Arianne S Richardson is a current PhD candidate studying creative and cultural entrepreneurship in The Bahamas. She is the owner of a boutique business consulting and talent management company that caters to Caribbean creatives. Visit her website A Rich Culture at https://arichculture.com.
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