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Relief fund for artists’ first round payout approved

2020-08-10  Paheja Siririka

Relief fund for artists’ first round payout approved

The National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN), Arts and Culture Covid-19 Relief Fund has approved the payout for the first round of applications for the cultural and creative industry totalling N$302 000.

The Arts and Culture Covid-1 Relief Fund of the NACN, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture, is a temporary project-based relief fund to support the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) to continue implementing their mandate and sustain their operations during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Beneficiaries of the fund include Free Your Mind Entertainment: Comedy for performing arts, Ombetja Yehinga Organisation Trust: Dance, Pencilled Casting: Creative Industry, Playaville Theatre School in the Oshikoto region and The Ongoma Trust for Music. All the organisations walked away with amounts totalling between N$34 000 to N$74 000 each.
Other receivers were five artists from the visual arts, craft and design, performing arts and literature promotion sectors based in the Khomas, Erongo and Zambezi regions who each scooped N$2 000.

The administrator of the NACN, Gretta Gaspar, said the council hasn’t yet finalised  when the funds will be distributed but they will notify the recipients as soon as the internal matters are properly checked and all is in order.
“We still have internal matters to sort out so it is difficult to state the exact date of when the funds will be given but once that is sorted, we will immediately give out the funds, ” detailed Gaspar.

She mentioned that 35 eligible applications were received for the first cycle of review which included 20 individuals and 15 organisations. “No group entries were received. Eligible applications were reviewed by the Arts and Culture Covid-19 Relief Fund Committee, which is composed of seven experts from the public and private sectors in the fields of art, culture, heritage, craft, music, media, and law.”
Gaspar said that the next cycle results will be made public on 13 and 28 August, 17 September, 1 and 15 October. “Fund applications are open until 30 September 2020. The application toolkit is available online via the NACN website. Physical applications may be collected from the ministry of education regional offices across the country,” she added.

Priority will be given to those that fall in special needs categories such as people with disabilities, marginalised communities, and rural and/or indigenous communities. The NACN encourages nation-wide applications from all arts and culture sectors.  The NACN was established to focus on the development of the arts in Namibia with a mandate to administer the fund through the provision of financial support to the arts sector through varying means, hence, it is urging industry players to apply for the grants. Individual artists may apply for up to N$2 000. Groups and organisations may apply for projects up to N$75 000. –  psiririka@nepc.com.na


2020-08-10  Paheja Siririka

Tags: Khomas
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