Ministry of Culture Meets with Painters to Discuss Plans

Ministry of Culture Meets with Painters to Discuss Plans
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 1/3/2013

Minister of Culture, José Antonio Rodríguez, held a meeting with a group of artists in which they discussed issued related to this sector and its development in the cultural processes of the Dominican Republic.

Among the initiatives identified at the meeting, they stressed working to make the visual arts market more dynamic through various actions inside and outside the country.

The meeting is part of a dynamic being undertaken by Minister Rodríguez with the various artistic sectors as a way of getting to know them better and to jointly plan actions that will benefit the growth of the arts. The meeting, attended by dozens of painters, was held in the Ramón Oviedo Art Gallery at the Ministry of Culture.

Minister Rodríguez told the artists that he is convinced that “art is an industry and you achieve value when someone buys your paintings.” He added that only exhibitions can provide value to a painting and to the artist and that the role of the state is to show who we are and to stimulate this value.

Among the initiatives identified at the meeting, they stressed working to make the visual arts market more dynamic through various actions inside and outside the country.

He said these actions will come from embassies and consulates as well as through the Ministry of Tourism so that tourists will begin to appreciate work from Dominican artists in the centers they visit.

Rodríguez suggested the idea of silk screen printing the work of artists to make them more affordable to various sectors of society who would otherwise not be able to buy original pieces of art. This would protect and respect the right of the authors.

Rodríguez was accompanied by the Deputy Coordinator of the Ministry of Cultural Creativity,Mirtha Olivares; Dustin Muñoz, deputy director of Fine Arts; Carlos Santos, coordinator of the Office of Institutional Development and the painters Elsa Peña and Ángel Haché.

Several people at the meeting made observations and recommendations to the Ministry of Culture on how to bring about new cultural policies in the art sector.

Among the concerns put forward by the artists was exhibiting and selling their work and the violation of authors’ rights. The artists said that copies of their work are being sold in stores around the country, affecting the quality of the work shown in public plazas.

They also referred to the existence of intermediaries who sell their work to the government, which makes them millions in profits. They also discussed the need for the government to assume the promotion of the artwork through the Ministries of Tourism and Foreign Relations.