In November, the Dutch national culture funds made a joint visit to the six islands in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. This working visit built on previous experiences, and gathered insights into the needs and wants on the islands. With this visit, the funds wanted to broaden knowledge about the grant schemes, expand the network and explore opportunities for customisation on an island-by-island basis.
12 December 2024
Although the Fund’s grant schemes have been open to Caribbean makers and institutions for many years, in practice they experience different challenges. Since the first pilot in 2022, the national culture funds have been actively working to raise their profile and increase accessibility in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. This working visit showed a positive development: the collaboration between the national culture funds is appreciated and their grant schemes are becoming increasingly accessible to the islands.
Executive director Syb Groeneveld tells: "The largely non-existent funding for cultural infrastructure on the islands is a challenge. The step up from amateur to culture professional is very difficult on the islands. As national culture funds, together we can play a positive role through specific tailor-made training and development programmes, such as our Scout Nights programme which supports four young makers from the ABCSSS islands annually."
The largely non-existent funding for cultural infrastructure on the islands is a challenge. As national culture funds, together we can play a positive role.
The Fund delegation this time consisted of executive director Syb Groeneveld and regional project leader Chloë Neeleman. A networking session took place on each island, where current and future applicants interacted with the funds about personal experiences, obstacles and opportunities for the future.
In addition to these sessions, the programme included visits to local cultural institutions, talks with supported makers and meetings with the government. For example, the Fund delegation visited DAM Caribbean on Sint Maarten. This organisation is currently working on a plan to investigate the challenges concerning the Dutch-French border on the island, in response to the Open Call Crossing Borders. The Fund also spoke on Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten with makers who had previously presented their work during Scout Night ABCSSS.
In addition, the programme involved a guided tour in Willemstad, among other places, of the Kaya Kaya Festival (supported under the Fund’s Festivals grant scheme), the Design Academy and Wintertuin Curaçao.
Regular exchanges in recent years have made it clear that the it is not always easy for makers on the ABCSSS islands to find the right grant scheme. During the previous period, a website was therefore developed to make the offerings of the national cultural funds more accessible to applicants in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. On the website www.rijkscultuurfondsen.org, some of the Funds’ offerings can be found in Dutch, English, Papiamento and Papiamentu.
