Writers, artists to receive grants for creative projects in 2019

Dec 10, 2018 News

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-$20M boost for Pilot National Creative Industries Development Fund

Artists from a range of different fields have not been given the most conducive, local environment to express their creative talents. For many Guyanese creative individuals, art is only a hobby or something they do on the side, instead of a talent they can monetize.
Come 2019, Guyanese artists will see the introduction of a pilot project to fund the work of excited, driven individuals with project ideas. The Pilot National Creative Industries Development Fund will be executed by the Department of Culture.

The project was added to the Budget 2019 roster and has been allocated $20M. A core objective of the fund is to recognize and reward individuals and entities involved in creative industry development in Guyana. The categories to which funding will be considered are Dance (Company, Individual), Music (Group/Publisher, Individual), Theatrical Performance (Group, Individual), Film & Animation (Collaborative only), Visual Arts and Photography (Collaboration, Individual), Literary Arts (Publisher, Individual), Fashion (Collaborative, Individual), Creative Spaces and Creative Collaborations.
Notably, the fund would not cover projects that focus on cultural heritage preservation, creative arts education, or cultural policy and its derivative measures.
To be eligible for funding, applicants will not be expected to be Guyanese citizens. However, they must have been resident in Guyana for a minimum of two years prior to application. Interested Non Governmental Organisations must be verifiably active in Guyana at least one year prior to application.
There will be no age limit, but preference will be given to individuals who are under the age of 35; in the case of NGOs or collaborative ventures, preference will be given to initiatives that involve a majority of participants under the age of 35. It is expected that successful applicants will be ineligible to apply for two funding cycles after receipt of the grant.
Obligations included under agreement to receive such a grant would include availing the applicant to mentorship and capacity building support the fund administration has to offer, the completion of the project within an established timeline, and the returning of an equity contribution to the fund of revenue generated from the marketing of the finished project.
These terms are included in the concept note drafted by the Cultural Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Social Cohesion, Ruel Johnson. The matter of whether any of them will undergo variation will depend on the Terms of Reference to be developed by the Ministry of Social Cohesion.
In an interview with Kaieteur News, Johnson, said that such a project should benefit Guyana significantly as creative industries are sound pathways for the economic diversification. He said that the development of creative industries also has great potential to foster social cohesion, since creative arts have a very particular and valuable role in transforming how people see each other, across the spectrums of different tribalisms, such as ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and class.
“The fund has the capacity, if managed properly to represent direct investment in people who will be the fundamental building blocks of the creative economy. The success of this fund will depend on the recognition and rewarding of individual excellence in creativity and ensuring that the creative sectors in Guyana have groups that can take advantage of its benefits.”
Johnson said that his vision for the project is its expansion in 2021, following a presumably successful two-year run. He said that, to ensure young, Guyanese creative individuals are appreciated, it would be best to enshrine investment in the development of creative industries into law, as has been done by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.
Barbados had enshrined an Arts and Sports Promotion Fund (2004-5) into law with amendments as recent as 2008-9, while Trinidad and Tobago has had a Sport and Culture Fund Act since 1988, which was amended in 1993.
Guyana had attempted a Sports and Arts Development Fund (SADF), launched in 2007, which was the subject of widespread controversy. The Art Development Fund for the period January 01, 2012 to May 31, 2015 had been subjected to a forensic audit in 2015, revealing troubling disparities and breaches of accounting and asset management procedures. The audit, which was conducted by forensic auditor Lester Bowen, had found that approximately $167M included in allocations by the budgets of 2012-2014 were not accounted for, or more than half of the total expenditure approved by the National Assembly.
Recalling this, Johnson has expressed concern that the project, if improperly managed, could see the funds being misappropriated through what he described as a “cesspool of corruption” at the Department of Social Cohesion. Hence, he said that transparency and accountability must be of paramount importance.
“We have to ensure that artists are overwhelmingly the primary beneficiaries of the fund. It can’t be for middlemen, administrative workers or incidental service providers. The money has to go directly to the creative project.”

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