Minister of Culture announces the participation of artists in day of literacy

Minister of Culture announces the participation of artists in day of literacy
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, September 12, 2012

The Minister of Culture, José Antonio Rodríguez, announced that, starting in January of 2013, an artistic and cultural program will accompany the activities of teachers and students, until the completion of the “Quisqueya Aprende Contigo” National Literacy Plan in 2014.

Rodríguez urged Dominican artists and intellectuals, as well as cultural institutions, to support the literacy initiative which will bring justice to the people who have not had access to education in the Dominican Republic in the past.

Rodríguez urged Dominican artists and intellectuals, as well as cultural institutions, to support the literacy initiative which will bring justice to the people who have not had access to education in the Dominican Republic in the past.

According to the Minister’s instructions, the premises and the staff of the Ministry of Culture, at the national level, will be made available to the aforementioned plan. The Government’s objective is to bring literacy to over 700,000 Dominicans.

He said that the Ministry of Culture will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and with the National Literacy Network to establish the cultural-artistic program, which will start at the very beginning of the plan, in January of 2013, according to what has been mandated by the President of the Republic, Danilo Medina.

“The arts and culture program will brighten up the day of literacy, and will reach both the teachers and the students,” said Rodriguez through statements given by the Ministry of Culture’s Directorate General of Communications.

Likewise, concerts, paint exhibitions, theater plays, poetry recitals, among other activities, are being planned to brighten up the literacy day.

The Ministry will also integrate the Dominican artists that will provide support to the educational programthat is aimed at the poorest sectors of the country.

Rodriguez considered the National Literacy Plan as a day of emancipation, “the same way thatthe arts and culture are also liberating.”

Last Monday, Rodriguez led a meeting with the provincial directors of the Ministry of Culture. He instructed them to offer all possible support to the National Literacy Plan, because President Medina’s initiative is part of a solidarity-based vision of governing, and as the Minister of Culture his intent is toinitiate “a new stage based on a people-centered work vision.”

He said that President Medina’s National Literacy Plan seeks to vindicate the citizens who walk on foot, “and for us, without a doubt, it represents the point of departure and of arrival of the cultural actions as a process of emancipation.”

He stated that the Ministry of Culture is a first-rate strategic player in the interesting search for dissemination and the projection of national identity and of“Dominicanidad” (what it is to be Dominican).

On Monday, September 10th, Rodríguez led the start of the school year at the schools of Fine Arts, where he summarized that for the Ministry of Culture it is a moral issue to accompany the teachers and students with a program that encompasses all art forms.

In addition he said that, fortunately, the issue of culture has occupied much space overthe years, reaching its greatest dissemination and importance throughout the period of democratic transition, which began after the fall of the Trujillo dictatorship