REGIONAL CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

TOPICS:

• Regional activities
• Multinational Project for Preservation and Use of the Cultural Heritage
• Inter-American Center for Archives Development
• Multinational Project on Cultural Policy and Regional Studies
• Multinational Project on Popular Culture and Education
• Multinational Project on Libraries, Information and Communication
• Multinational Project on the Arts

The regional and national activities and multinational projects of this Program helped further cultural development in the member States. The Program published a number of books and documents.

Regional activities

More issues of the Revista Interamericana de Bibliografía (RIB) were published. A catalogue of the contents of the RIB from Volume XXXIII (1983) to Volume XLII (1992) is being readied for the printers.

The OAS partially funded a visit by 12 participants attending a meeting sponsored by the Latin American Center for Theater Creation and Research (CELCIT) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It also made it possible for three artists to participate in the Encounter with Hispano-American Poetry, sponsored by the University of Lima, in Lima, Peru. The Belize Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs sponsored an exhibit of Winston Branch, of Saint Lucia, in Belize in June.

A grant was awarded for research at the United States Library of Congress. The Regional Cultural Development Program sponsored a contest for high school students in Uruguay. The subject was the Organization of American States and the Inter-American System. The contest was organized and coordinated by the Permanent Mission of Uruguay to the OAS, the Office of the OAS General Secretariat in Uruguay, and Rotary Club International. The Regional Cultural Development Program also worked with the Museo Nacional de Antropología del Uruguay to mount an exhibit titled Indígenas del Uruguay, Desaparecidos y Descendientes: Imágenes y Pensamientos.

The Department of Cultural Affairs published 7 works in the INTERAMER Collection.

Multinational Project for Preservation and Use of the Cultural Heritage

At the Altos de Chavón Regional Archeological Museum, La Romana, the Dominican Republic, a workshop was held on aboriginal cultures in the Caribbean Basin. It was attended by two fellowship recipients from the host country and nine nationals of Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.

A Travelling Regional Course held to update working archaeologists was attended by professors and students of archeology from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

The XIX Inter-American Course on Restoration, Specializing in Mural Paintings, was held in Trujillo, Peru. The OAS and the Executive Secretariat of the Andrés Bello Agreement (SECAB) awarded 15 fellowships to students from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The Course on Preserving and Restoring Pre-Colombian and Colonial Ceramics was held in Panama at the Subregional Inter-American Center on Restoration, Specializing in Ceramics. Ten fellowship recipients from Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the host country attended.

Arrangements were made to enable the Director of the Inter-American Center for Restoration of Movable Cultural Property, in Cuzco, Peru, to participate in the Second Meeting of Directors of Restoration Centers in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held in Santafé de Bogota, Colombia.

CARIMOS: Under this regional subproject, a meeting of the Working Group on career training and publications and a meeting of the expanded Executive Committee were held during the first week of August. At those meetings, the plan was signed and authenticated and the statutes approved. The business involved in establishing contacts with universities in the subregion to create the CARIMOS Masters Degree Program also continued. A number of specific activities were carried out under the project.

Inter-American Center for Archives Development

Equipment was provided for archives-maintenance activities in a number of member States. There were training activities for staff in charge of archives and documents. A number of meetings were held on various aspects of the topic, and several manuals were published.

Multinational Project on Cultural Policy and Regional Studies

The Fifth Regional Course on Designing Plans and Programs to Train Agents for Cultural Development was held at CLACDEC, Venezuela. The OAS paid the expenses of thirteen fellows from the region. The Fourteenth Latin American and Caribbean Course on Administration of Cultural Services, organized by CLACDEC, was held in Caracas, Venezuela, from May to August, and was attended by 15 fellowship recipients.

Coordinated by the Institute of Advanced Studies for Latin America of the Universidad Simón Bolívar, Asunción, Paraguay was the site of a Seminar on "Integration in Partnership: Reconstitution of Latin American Political Systems."

The Seminar on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway was held in July, sponsored by ALADI and attended by experts from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The OAS made it possible for three international experts to participate in the Seminar on Integration in Today's World, held in Montevideo, Uruguay. These three experts were attending as module leaders.

Support was provided to the Les Forges Foundation of Trois-Rivières, Quebec Province, Canada, to enable four Latin American and Caribbean poets to participate in the Tenth International Poetry Festival.

The Project on Cultural Policy and Regional Studies that the School of International Affairs of the Universidad de Costa Rica is coordinating, published Issue 45 of the Revista de Relaciones Internacionales, containing papers presented at the International Seminar on Structural Adjustment and Democracy, held in San José in 1993.

Multinational Project on Popular Culture and Education

The following were among the activities carried out: a workshop to exchange natural dyeing techniques, held in Cuenca, Ecuador, and attended by 14 craftsmen from six countries; a meeting to strengthen the inter-American network of craftsmen and artisans, held in Cuenca, Ecuador, for directors of crafts programs from seven countries; a Central American seminar to develop networks of craftsmen and artisans to exchange information and to market their products, held in San José, Costa Rica, with 20 participants from the Central American countries, Mexico and Panama in attendance.

Under the Caribbean Basin subproject in ethnomusicology, research and cultural documentation, the Caribbean Arts Festival Seminar was held in The Bahamas in November, with 12 participants; the Caribbean workshop on developing and using steel drums in schools was held in Trinidad and Tobago, for 10 instructors. Under the subproject on the Caribbean communications media on the issues of the environment and drugs and as a follow-up to the second course on drugs and AIDS, held in Curacao for the benefit of radio producers from Suriname and the OECS member States, and with the support of Radio Netherlands, CICAD and CIM, educational publications on AIDS and drugs were produced and circulated.

Three inter-American centers, the Inter-American Center on Ethnomusicology and Folklore (CIDEF), the Regional Subcenter of Handicrafts and Folk Art (SURAP) and the Inter-American Center for Handicrafts and Folk Arts (CIDAP) prepared a test draft of the Thesaurus of Popular Culture. The three centers participated in a workshop held in Guatemala to plan their future activities and to see how they might work together to develop a computerized data network on popular cultures. At CIDAP, an inter-American workshop was held for master craftsmen, with 15 participants from eight countries. An inter-American seminar on design techniques for artisans and another on traditional toys were held in Campinas, Brazil. CIDEF sponsored the Second Inter-American Meeting on Cultures with an Oral Tradition, which was held in Chile and was attended by 16 participants from eight countries. The Caribbean Cultural Training Center, headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, offered two advanced training sessions in Caribbean artistic expression, with 19 persons from the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean participating.

Multinational Project on Libraries, Information and Communication

A Meeting/Seminar of the Project on New Information Technologies for Community Development was held in Chile under the auspices of the National Bureau of Libraries and Museums, with 18 participants from 10 countries. At OAS headquarters, a small meeting was held of library directors to explore ways of giving the Columbus Memorial Library a more effective role in technical cooperation activities. A number of national activities were conducted to disseminate new information technologies for low-income groups. The project generated numerous publications.

The Central Bank of Ecuador co-sponsored the Fourth Round Table of Centers of Excellence in Document Preservation, to promote an exchange of information and techniques among the principal documents preservation centers in Latin America. The information network, which includes institutions from 12 countries, developed a database of 2,100 Spanish-language publications on documents preservation, prepared by the General Archives of Mexico.

Multinational Project on the Arts

The 1994 season of the OAS Official Concert Series was held at Organization headquarters.

In Miami (Florida) the annual OAS-Miami competition to select the three best pianists in the state of Florida was held. These three pianists will have recitals in Washington on the occasion of Inter-American Week, celebrated in April of each year. With the support of the Inter-American Music Council (CIDEM), a concert series was given by the String Orchestra of the Banco Mayo in Buenos Aires, featuring works by composers of the Americas.

With the cooperation of CIDEM, the Fifth Inter-American Course for Youth Orchestra Directors was held in Merida and Barquisimeto (Venezuela). Again under CIDEM auspices, the concert and recital series continued in the member States at the following institutions: the University Extension Office of the School of Law of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; the National Symphonic Orchestra of Quito, Ecuador; the National Music School, Peru; the Office of Integral Music Education of the Dominican Republic; Young Musicians of Uruguay; Young Musicians of Chile and Young Musicians of Venezuela.

Under an agreement between the International Music Council (CIM), headquartered in Paris, CIDEM, and Spanish music officials, a series of concerts was held in five Andalusian cities, to introduce Spanish music professors to the considerable progress made in the field of music in Mexico and Venezuela thanks to the Youth Symphonic Orchestras.

Another contribution was received to fund the Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat fellowship, which enables a native of Argentina to complete his/her masters or doctorate in the United States.

A number of music courses were given in which students from numerous countries in the region participated. These were held at the Inter-American Center for Instrumental Studies (CIDESIN), San José, Costa Rica, and at the Inter-American Music Education Institute (INTEM), in Chile.

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