Local designer and jeweller Gillian Bishop has been given the go-ahead by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to draft a new design for the Coat of Arms.
Rowley made the revelation at yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing at Whitehall, Port-of-Spain.
He did not reveal how much Bishop has charged for the design, nor when she will deliver on it, but he said it would not cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The PM also said that members of the public can make design submissions.
Bishop is the owner of Signature Collection, and has worked as a full-time jeweller and craftsman since 1972.
She was educated at Bishop Anstey High School and UWI’s Mona Campus and holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry. Her work is also featured in private collections in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Nigeria, and South Africa to name a few countries.
Dr Rowley said, “There is a committee that is working on this whole question of signage, statues and monuments. That work is continuing to completion, and I don’t know how many people have cooperated with them to make submissions to them, but the door is open to that.”
Rowley also again dismissed suggestions that the plan to rework the emblem will be a costly exercise, noting it will not be done all at once. Rather, he said stationery must be restocked and suggested the new Coat of Arms could be printed during this process.
He said, “Every government department now have stationery and instead of throwing it away because the Government said we change the logo, over that six-month period, you keep using up what you have, and then when you print a new stock, you print the new one. So, there is no question of unnecessarily engaging in millions of dollars.”