The old dilemma in Cuba how to finance culture
HAVANA, Oct. 22 Can we talk about the economy of Culture in Cuba? Are they really taken into account, on equal terms, all the economic actors that interact today on the island and are they involved in decision-making?
How to achieve the long-awaited endogenous development of Cuban communities? These and other questions were debated these days at the VII Cultural Life and Local Development Meeting, which is based in the central province of Sancti Spíritus.
Sponsored by the Casa de la Guayabera, the Territorial Development Directorate of the Provincial Government, the Articulated Platform for Integral Territorial Development (PADIT) and the Provincial Directorate of Culture, the event aims to establish itself as a space for the confluence of local development actors to based on the new forms of management existing in the country, with emphasis on productive transformation and international insertion, as well as human development, equity and social justice.
Exchanges of experiences, exhibitions and business coordination fairs and workshops given by experts from Cuba and the Dominican Republic are some of the activities that appeared on the agenda of the event.
It was attended by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), development projects local, institutions and government agencies, according to statements to the local press by Daisel García, head of the Territorial Development Directorate of the provincial government and member of the organizing committee.
For three days, the exhibition of projects and the dialogue between the state and private sectors will serve to show how much progress has been made so far in terms of territorial sustainability based on the communities’ own capacities, as well as perfect the directions of local development, so May good intentions not fall on the deaf ears of empty speeches and formalities.
The VII Cultural Life and Local Development Meeting has as its main stage the Casa de la Guayabera, a local development project founded in 2012 at Quinta Santa Elena, an emblematic building in the city of Sancti Spíritus.
The excellence of Art Award in 2019, Cieric-Uneac and COSUDE Award in 2009, the Casa de la Guayabera is one of the most dynamic institutions in the cultural life of Sancti Spíritus and self-manages its entire operation from the articulation of key elements of the cultural industry and the new forms of financing that coexist in the Cuban economy.
The house is located next to the Yayabo River and has the largest collection of guayaberas worn by prominent Cuban and foreign personnel, which makes it a reference site in the preservation of national heritage and, for some years, also in matters of economy of culture.
