Creatives in the Commonwealth of Dominica are among those from 15 Caribbean Countries invited to apply for grant funding from the ACP-EU 3 million Euro Grant Support Programme. The Programme will support individuals and organisations in the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) across areas such as music, fashion, festivals, film and animation, literary arts, visual and performing arts.

A National Information Session is organized specifically for Creatives in the Commonwealth of Dominica on Friday, July 1, 2022, at 11:00a.m. In this online session details of each grant call will be explained, and the question and answer segment will allow for clarity on any area relating to the application for a grant.

The grant support programme is being implemented by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat and The University of the West Indies (UWI), through a regional project entitled ‘Creative Caribbean – An Ecosystem of “Play” for Growth and Development.’

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Creative Caribbean will provide grants and improve the economic conditions of creatives to stimulate sustainable growth of the CCIs in the Caribbean, a sector which provides millions in revenue and in which thousands of people find full time and part time work.

Creatives may apply under 3 grant schemes: industry grants, enabling environment grants, and training grants. Applications are to be submitted on the project website at https//en.unesco.org/creative-caribbean/home. The deadline for applications is 8 July 2022 at 11:59 pm EST.

Funding under the Industry Grants category will be made available for activities such as: 

1. Festival Development and Marketplace, Work Placement & Knowledge Transfer;
2. Artist Mobility – Artist Residencies; 
3. Product Development and Content Production; 
4. Small Grants for Professional Associations; 
5. Small Grants for Emerging Creative Content Originators; 
6. Scaling Grants for Export-Ready Creatives; 
7. CCI Festival Business Exchange Networks and Fora.

Falling under the Enabling Environment Grants category are the following areas of focus: 

1. Visual Literacy and Performing Arts; 
2. National Artist Registries;

1. Data Intelligence;
2. Cultural Policy;
3. National Implementation Plans;
4. Draft Legislation;
5. Institutional Strengthening;
6. Creative City Sub-Sector Accelerators;

The Training Grants scheme includes areas such as: 

1. Visual Literacy and Performing Arts;
2. Transversal Capacity Building Workshops.

Creatives can apply in two rounds of grant calls in 2022 and 2023. The first round, live now, includes two grant categories, Industry and Enabling Environment. The Training grant call will be launched in October 2022. The second round of grant calls, slated to be launched in the second quarter of 2022, will include all three categories – Industry, Enabling Environment and Training grants. Eligible entities/categories of persons include:

• CCI actors, artists, entrepreneurs with emphasis on young to mid-career practitioners;
• Registered CCI professional organizations, associations, collectives, guilds, civil society organizations and groups;
• Secondary and tertiary academic faculty, students and researchers.

The project will also generate the research and data needed to improve regional policies and laws around the creative and culture industries while facilitating capacity-building activities to expand the various sub-sectors of the CCIs across the Caribbean.

Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) are sectors which provide millions in revenue and in which thousands of people find full time and part-time work across the globe.  Often dubbed the Orange Economy, many CCI professionals in the Caribbean function in the informal economy without representation or membership within professional bodies. This project will encourage formalization of the various sectors through the grant schemes which are aimed at supporting the entire CCI ecosystem.

Fifteen Caribbean countries will benefit from this injection of support into the CCI ecosystem. They are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, The Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

The project is being implemented over forty months and is expected to end in 2024.

The media and creatives are invited to register to attend the online Information session here:

https://unesco-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_McwjJS-sTFSmdSU0dyC5EA