By Jared Liddell

THE Guyana Animation Network (GAN), one of the country’s most active animation companies, on July 2 celebrated its fourth anniversary. With the rise of animation in the Caribbean, more and more persons recognise the importance this skill can play in the preservation of cultural history. The Pepperpot Magazine reached out to the founder of GAN, Jubilante Cutting, who beamed with pride at the level of growth her organisation has had since its official launch.

According to Cutting, the organisation was birthed out of what she felt was a necessity. She stated that she noticed that there were no opportunities available for creatives, so she started the organisation as a way of reaching persons who had creative ideas who wanted to receive community support or financial support or just to know that someone was rooting for them.

GAN actually provided the opportunity for me to see that we have a lot of persons — children, youth, adults whether professional or freelancers– who are creatively gifted in Guyana and the more we cultivate the creative skills is the more we will be able to see many digital solutions coming out from our own cultural and national experience,” Cutting explained.

She stated that since she had no background in the creative field, she had no idea that four years down the line GAN would have been able to not just achieve success, but have such a deep and lasting impact on the lives of many creatives who partnered with the organisation and who chose to become members.

GAN has pitched proposals on several regional and international platforms and has been able to secure several resources through different channels such as the Caribbean Entrepreneurship Programme. GAN also pitched for the Global Start-Up System as one of the only tech organisations. GAN in its fourth year has also pitched and has been awarded a grant to provide rapid response to COVID 19. This is one of the many highlights of GAN’s achievements for this year.
Cutting stated that several things are noteworthy about the organisation, including its clear understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals “partnerships for goals” where it uses its many partnerships to provide opportunities and resources to its members. She explained that GAN currently has over 86 partners locally, regionally and internationally that actively help to provide services in Guyana.

She explained that this is especially evident in GAN’s 2020 summer camp where, through its partners, the organisation will be providing access to software that persons do not normally have access to for free. She stated that it goes to show that through GAN’s partnerships there is greater scope for Guyanese accessing technologies legitimately through GAN, whereas otherwise these resources would have been limited, not accessible or never heard of.

President of GAN, Francine Leith, echoed the sentiments of the organisation’s founder, stating that she joined the organisation soon after its launch and has had the opportunity to see GAN as well as its members grow.

“We wanted to show them how they can take their natural art skills to the next level through digitisation. Jubilante recruited me as a freelancer, art was something I did in my free time as a hobby during my studies,” she said. “So I started as a volunteer, just trying to help Jubi bring her vision and the vision of the group to life, to find out whether there were creatives within our space that have an interest in taking their skills to the next level by capitalising on these opportunities that are available regionally and internationally that we had no idea were available.”

Leithc said that while being president of the company she has seen the influence GAN has had on individuals, highlighting that many creatives are now becoming more aware of their art being able to exist in this digital world and the future of where creative skills can exist. Further, she highlighted that GAN has seen parents of children pushing and advising them to take advantage of the benefits of the organisation, as well as several adults reaching out themselves to be a part of the services and access that is offered by GAN.

She added that the group’s influence does not lie only with individuals but also members of other sectors within Guyana. “We have influenced certain partners in Guyana, namely CARICOM, to also take up the ambit of providing certain skills,” she said. “Last year the secretariat had its first workshop facilitated by GAN, where 13 children from an underserved community were given the chance to get the skills. So we’re not only affecting the youths, but were also affecting businesses to open their eyes and to see that these skills and opportunities are worth the investment to make into youths that may not have a direct impact on their businesses or the business community but; they see it as equipping the future of Guyana from now.”

GAN boasts a membership of diverse young people who have different skills and are committed to ensuring that creatives take full advantage of the opportunities provided to them through GAN to ensure that they perfect their talent and craft to work successfully in the modern world. The members advocate for persons to become participants where the experience for them is more of them gaining a skill or access to an event or something as opposed to carrying the load of an organisation.
GAN is currently facilitating registrations for its 2020 Summer Camp. Persons can register for GAN’s summer camp and there are resources especially for persons with businesses who have had to transition to providing online services or to persons who recently launched a business to provide services during the current pandemic.