“One hundred grants is a milestone for us,” said Katharina Ehrmann, Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF) Grants Manager. “It means that 100 ideas that might otherwise have struggled to get off the ground have been implemented.”
CCF’s awarded grants were chosen from calls for proposals focused on Art for Change, Caribbean Collaboration, Migration, Archiving and Memory, and Residencies and Fellowships. The 100 selected projects address a wide range of issues including social justice, human rights, memory and decolonisation, environmental resilience, youth engagement and creative livelihoods.
Juries were convened of creatives and arts advocates for each call to review and debate the applications. Raymona Henry-Wynne, Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation in St Lucia, described the process as “an eye-opening glimpse into the vast creative potential of the region.”
The 100 grants are based in 28 Caribbean countries and territories, while the projects they led reached or involved 32 countries and territories. Puerto Rico had the largest number of grantees, with 14, followed by Haiti with 10, Jamaica with 9 and the Dominican Republic with 8. St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago each had 5. Grantees also came from Barbados, Curaçao, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas, Guyana, Saint Martin, Belize, Suriname, the US Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Caribbean Netherlands, the Cayman Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Sint Maarten, and St Kitts and Nevis.
Seventy were English-speaking, 18 were French-speaking and 12 were Spanish-speaking. Women represented the majority, with 60 women, 35 men and five non-binary grantees.
The portfolio also reflected the range of artistic practice in the region. Performing arts was the largest category, with 18 grantees, followed by multimedia with 16 and film with 14. Supported work also included residencies, music, libraries and archives, literature and publishing, visual arts, photography, design, sculpture, architecture and video games.
“The CCF effectively allows us to be seen, heard, and felt,” said Dr John Hunte, juror and Executive Director of Barbados Dance Project. “It is a portal to being part of the global conversation.”
CCF is now analysing its grantmaking data to better understand where demand for cultural funding is strongest and how that learning can shape future calls.
For CCF Executive Director Kellie Magnus, reaching 100 grants also points to the work still ahead. Behind every application CCF could not fund, she said, are creatives seeking someone to take their ideas seriously. CCF will continue exploring ways to connect more Caribbean creatives to funding, networks and visibility.
CCF
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