On January 21, the application window for the $150,000 USD CATAPULT Arts Grant closed, seeing a total of 436 creatives from 23 Caribbean countries applying for funding,
The grant, now in its second year, is a joint initiative of Kingston Creative, the American Friends of Jamaica and the Open Society Foundation.It seeks to support 300 Caribbean creatives through Covid-19 relief grants worth $500 USD, intended to mitigate the impact of lockdown on their livelihoods.
The applicants will go through a rigorous evaluation process led by a panel of independent jurors from the region to select the best applicants.
The jurors are:
- Ana Maria Hernandez (Aruba)
Ana is an independent art historian, curator & founder of Platforma Aruba
Holly Byone (St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
Holly is an Independent Curator, Writer,Artist, Spiritualist, and Founder of ARC Magazine from St.Vincent & the Grenadines.
Juan Francisco Pardo (Aruba)
Juan is an award winning Aruban filmmaker, known for films such as Brackish Water (2015)
Natalie Urquhart (Cayman Islands)
Natalie is the Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands.
Nicholas Laughlin (Trinidad & Tobago)
Nicholas is the Editor of The Caribbean Review of Books, Caribbean Beat and is the author of the poetry book The Strange Years of My Life (2015).
Review of Books
- Sara Shabaka (Jamaica)
Sara is a Design lecturer at EMCVPA, & Creative Director at Coen Shabaka Design.
- Simone Harris (Jamaica)
Simone is the founder of 360 ARTISTS, an arts and entertainment management consultancy that provides business development and music publishing services to emerging and established artists.
A unique feature of this grant is that all applicants will be added to the Caribbean Creative Network, an open artist directory that the public can access to find, hire and easily partner with Caribbean creatives for international and local projects.
“We are really excited about the judging process as we are confident that this panel of talented professionals will pick the best Caribbean creatives for the grant,” says Khadijah Chang, Kingston Creative Project Manager, “The database will undoubtedly create more access to markets and employment, so we are really looking forward to seeing the impact that CATAPULT will have for the creative community across the region.”
