NEAR FINAL DRAFT CREATIVE SECTOR BUDGET 2021
Wednesday 23rd September 2020
PREAMBLE
The COVID pandemic has transformed the world and economies overnight, shutting down economic activity and changing the way human beings relate on a fundamental level. Meanwhile the world has been kept sane by tonnes of online streaming artistic content- most controlled by a small number of international corporations. This content needs to be diversified by producers such as ourselves.
The pandemic has also fast-tracked the virtualization of business. Bricks and mortar- rent-based businesses- have been hurt badly. Many T&T industries have to migrate online quickly and properly. The next 6 months could see a retail Armageddon if conditions do not change- especially through the upcoming Christmas into Carnival season. An unprecedented crime spree and societal collapse can follow soon after…
CREATIVE SECTOR INTERVENTION & BENEFITS:
1. These projects are going to put over 25,000 people directly to work and its knock-on into the economy will be enormous. Creative Sector projects have more diversified economic beneficiaries than other industries. These will include people from all classes, ethnicities, and geographic regions
2. A host of these are infrastructural and design-related projects which upgrade the local architectural and design environment, create new tourism destinations, and new economic and entrepreneurial hubs
3. Most of these projects are development-minded, creating sustainable income earning institutions, opportunities, and projects- many of which are FOREX earning. These are not welfare based!
4. These projects can conservatively earn this nation over $2-3 billion in FOREX in the next 2 years!
WHERE DOES THE MONEY TO FUND THIS COME FROM:
1. It is no secret that Culture gets the smallest subvention in the National Budget ($300-$500 million)- despite the fact that the Creative Industries are the second largest industry on planet Earth ($2.25 trillion annually- UNESCO Cultural Times Report 2015) and is our National comparative advantage! National Security and Education get around $10-15 billion each.
WE ARE ASKING FOR $300- $500 MILLION TO BE MIGRATED FROM NATIONAL SECURITY (AND POSSIBLY EDUCATION) AS PART OF A CREATIVE ANTI-CRIME AND CRIME-PREVENTION STRATEGY. Added to our normal spend it should be enough.
2. Re-approaching the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to have POS re-entered as a city in the Sustainable Cities Initiative. This frees up IADB grant and soft loan money for those projects
3. As a partner in the new Ministry of Tourism, Culture, & the Arts- Arts and Culture should get a lion’s share in the first year as destination Tourism is deflated at the moment. The Arts spend is about creating multiple Destinations on the ground and making the country safer. The disproportionate spend on Culture in the first year is about adding value to the Tourism product for future years.
4. The possible creation of a Government Bond issue around the 2 largest capital projects The House of Music and the Carnival & Steelband Museum
5. A continued refinement of tax rebate and levy programmes that target corporate contributions. Examples: a tax on the annual gross sales and receipts of companies and unincorporated associations at the rate of a suggested 0.5%. The tax is paid annually into a Fund by business entities who have no record of Arts Funding for a fiscal year period. These funds would be for distribution to organizations and communities for creative projects which relate to the documentation, preservation and digitization of Trinidad and Tobago's cultural heritage.
6. Creation of niche financial instruments to empower FOREX earning Creative entrepreneurs. Examples in Appendix
THE ROLE OF CARNIVAL 2021:
• THERE WILL BE NO CONVENTIONAL T&T CARNIVAL 2021. This will result in tremendous losses to our economy. It will also add to social collapse, national frustration, and spikes in crime.
• Normally Carnival brings in 55,000 visitors and around $650 million in Foreign Exchange (2006 Tourism Study). Government also spends over $150 million in the festival with private bodies spending possibly upwards of $600 million. This means the T&T economy could conservatively lose up to $1.4 billion of economic activity with no Carnival. There are many people for whom Carnival represents up to 75% of their annual income. Even large T&T corporations.
• ARTISTS HOWEVER ARE SUGGESTING THAT CARNIVAL 2021 COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN PAST CARNIVALS!
• We might lose 55,000 visitors but we may gain 55 million eyes!
• The Sector would like to target 55 million online visitors to the 48 streaming hours of Carnival 2021. This represents a base target market of the 4 million Trinis world-over along with the 300 Trini-style Carnival massives who will tune in- with boosted audiences. If we cleverly utilize our diaspora stars like Nicki Minaj, Billy Ocean, Jillionaire, Winston Duke, Heather Headley, etc we can boost our audiences.
• WE MUST SEE CARNIVAL 2021 AS THE LAUNCH OF T&T’S VIRTUAL ECONOMY! NOT JUST FOR CREATIVES BUT ALL BUSINESS SECTORS. FOR 2 DAYS THE EYES OF THE WORLD WILL BE ON US.
• Many of the projects in this proposal have their target as Carnival 2021.
• Economies have moved online and this proposal is about using the Creative Industries- who have the most magnetic and immediate content- as the guinea pigs in the creation of an architecture for the digital marketplace and the conversion of IP material. Carnival 2021 will be the coming out party!
• Carnival 2021 televised content must be curated expertly. It must be done by proper curators, designers, tech and TV professionals. Every second must be a monetiseable or brand bonanza.
• Government also can save up to $100 million in infrastructural spend by not having to put up the traditional Carnival infrastructure in 2021. Some of this money can be diverted to the human capital like the programmes enclosed and creating Traditional Mas Guilds, passing on skills etc
• After Carnival 2021 the year can be choreographed into Artistic and Festival Seasons to correspond to international markets and local cycles of production and demand. This assists with the corralling of sponsorship, tourist attention, and the natural curation of output into generations of content
RETURN ON INVESTMENT ON ONLINE CARNIVAL 2021: $400 MILLION
THE FOLLOWING 5 INITIATIVES COST US NOTHING BUT WILL RELEASE BILLIONS INTO THE ECONOMY: They are bureaucratic exercises and should be done immediately-
1. Priority: Passing the 50% Local Content Quota legislation for Broadcast Media (Radio & TV). Local Content Quotas remain the ONLY proven way globally to create successful Broadcast Industries in the shadow of American media empire competition. Most nations now have quotas Canada, the EU, Nigeria, South Korea, etc. It enables corporate T&T, advertising companies, and TV and radio stations to become facilitators of the Music and Film industry and net generators of foreign exchange.
2. Priority: The regularisation of the land tenure of Panyards- 65-75% of bands are on State lands. It would be the largest migration of wealth into the hands of Creatives in T&T history! We won this in 2014 as a Cabinet Note with a full plan on how it is to be implemented https://artistscoalition.files.wordpress.com/.../panyard...
3. Priority: Upgrade our IP registration, policing, and exploitation regime by the creation of an Independent Intellectual Property Office with a special campaign for IP valuation. This is currently in train and needs to be fast-tracked.
4. Priority: Review and removal of "morality" laws that prohibit the use of nudity and obscene language on stage but allowed to happen in foreign mediums. Replacement with a rating system
5. Priority: The proper constitution of the Civics curriculum to include T&T’s Creative Legacy, Heroes, Heritage, etc
THE IMPLEMENTATION VEHICLES: One of the problems in the past has been implementation. These 2 institutions are the 2 critical governmental implementation agencies. They should be managed and staffed by experts whose job is overseeing a crucial diversification and modernization exercise. They have to be able to move fast in this industry. The following are projects that should be directly funded under these 2 agencies:
1. The creation of an arms-length National Arts Council- it will fund and administer the following programmes from out of its new coffers. Staffing and set up $6 million TOTAL: $114,600,000
• Regulated seasonal grant-funding for all sectors of the Arts:
Cost: $30 million
Return on Investment (ROI): $100 million+. Genius practitioners create geometric returns
• THE 24 HISTORIES & BIOGRAPHIES project: There is a 2014 Cabinet Note which requests government to fund expert historians to complete their research and publish 12 Histories of T&Ts core artforms (Theatre, Ramleela, Soca, etc) and 12 Biographies of core T&T cultural icons (Sparrow, Kitch, Sundar, etc). Only 1 grant was given. We are flying blind as a people. We need these books to use as guides for the next generation, to serve as curricula for our creative tertiary institutions, and to serve as fodder for monetisable IP. Cabinet note: https://artistscoalition.files.wordpress.com/.../24...
Cost: $5 million-
ROI: Knowledge of the past is indispensable to the second stage of monetizing of Heritage. Hundreds of business ideas will emerge from the stories and data provided by these histories
• The creation of an Elite Artist Assistance Programme: Based on the successful Ministry of Sports Elite Athlete programme as well as the world famous US MacArthur Genius Grant Cabinet Note: https://artistscoalition.files.wordpress.com/.../elite...
Cost: $16 million-
ROI: $100 million Genius level practitioners create unexpected geometric returns, innovations, and pathways for others. The top 5% earn tens of millions for the country.
• Grants for Artists to migrate their content online. Pioneered by Barbados.
Cost: $5 million
ROI: $20 million Access to online markets will empower a new class of creative business
• Digitizing the National Museum Inventory and creation of a virtual museum. Guided by the Trinidad & Tobago Animation Network (TTAN), digital media tools (such as animation, gaming, virtual reality, digital art) can assist in the digitizing of the National Museum Inventory and its migration online into an interactive tour and sales-based portal $1.5 million
• Craft Associations migrating best products online and going after international design mags etc
Cost: $.5 million
ROI: $20 million Access to online markets will empower a new class of creative business
• A mass consultation on Carnival 2021 $100,000.
• Resource the National Trust properly: The body that oversees our built and natural Heritage is severely underfunded- despite the fact that near $1 billion has been spent on the Magnificent 7, the Red House, and President’s House, etc. The rest of the Heritage stock of T&T is in emergency condition and has only had a minute fraction of that. That money must pay for listing of buildings, preservation interventions, and the repurposing of 7 priority sites into monetisable adaptive-use destinations. T&T does not have any proper monetised adaptive use Heritage tourist sites, most are badly designed and choreographed.
Cost: $50 million
ROI: $100 million The country will finally see what a properly designed Heritage Site looks like and how it makes money. Each of the 7 can earn over $10 million annually easily.
• National Dance Soloist competition: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary school & adult level. In a socially distanced time such a competition keeps the artform alive
Cost: $1 million in prize and participation money. Matching money from sponsors
ROI: This will employ over 250 practitioners in a downtime and stimulate dance and the curriculum across the nation. It will also make excellent national TV/online entertainment
• National Monologue competition: Secondary, Tertiary school & adult level. In a socially distanced time such a competition keeps the artform alive
Cost: $1 million in prize and participation money. Matching money from sponsors
ROI: This will employ over 250 practitioners in a downtime and stimulate theatre and the curriculum across the nation. It will also make excellent national TV/online entertainment
2. The proper Funding of Creative TT which overseas Film, Fashion, and Music. Staffing and set up $4 million TOTAL $80 MILLION
• THE TARGET FOR THESE PROJECTS IS JULY 2021 & THE CREATION OF A GENERATION OF NEW PREMIUM CONTENT FOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC, TV, FILM, & GAMING ONLINE PLATFORMS. THE MODEL IS SOUTH KOREA.
• THE THEATRE TO FILM CONVERSION PROGRAMME- $100,000 to 50 teams with matching monies and resources from private sector and TV stations to convert plays (dances, etc) and dormant screenplays to streamable monetisable content. Based on the successful TTT Horace James’s Play of the Month model. It will be a National call administered by NDATT, NDANCE, and Tony Hall’s Playwright Workshop group. It would be a public private partnership as part of launching the Local Content Quota law. It will produce a generation of content now marketable globally and virtually. Cloistered teams and shoots with strict Ministry Of Health personnel and protocols. An apprenticeship programme is key:
Cost: $5 million
ROI: $100 million There will be break-out performers from this bunch, content will be licensed, talent will be signed… T&T can also create its own monetisable streaming platform
• Grants, rebates, funding etc for local productions plus the production of a feature film and TV series per year for international markets. The issue in the past has been the tragic underfunding of this unit as an industrial incubator. Now this is solved.
Cost: $30 million
ROI: $100 million There will be break-out performers from this bunch, content will be licensed, talent will be signed… T&T can also create its own monetisable streaming platform. The examples of Westwood Park (TV) and Sally’s Way (film) show how money can be made
• The creation of an essential Stand-alone Unit within Creative TT whose focus is Distribution and Touring. This unit must be made up of industry specialists like: Film Co, Studio Ananse, and Caribbean Tales for film distributionč Jean Michel Gibert for music distribution; and Martin Raymond for music licensing. This unit is concerned with situating product into Markets and Niches- Netflix, Hulu, Disney, Amazon, HBO Max, Spotify, terrestrial and virtual channels. This Unit will collect and disseminate data and provide Best Practice pathways for the Sector. Part of the Unit will see about Licensing of other T&T product internationally- visual arts, photographic, and film/TV content.
• The re-opening of Caribbean Sound Basin Music Studio. Even after being closed for almost 2 decades the CSB Amar studio and sound rooms remain amongst the best in the world (it was voted amongst the top 3 studios in the world by international recording industry experts). The Sector music plan entails partnering with T&T Grammy award winning Michael Jackson and Outkast producer Dexter Simmons and a dream team of World Beat producers to make the facility a hub for grade A recording talents from around the world with reciprocal relationships for our artists. An apprenticeship programme is key:
Cost: $10 million
ROI: $50 million CSB created some of the biggest hits in pop music in its earlier incarnation- Puff Daddy and Notorious BIGs biggest hits were done there. It can do so again
• The Sou Sou session initiative to fast track the recording and curating of T&T’s genius music of all genres. The idea is to identify the best studios and session musicians in T&T and identify the best unrecorded music or tracks that need to be recorded, redone, or remastered. Studios and session musicians are paid monthly, artists are not. They get their product recorded. A generation of music will be ready for the international market by July
Cost: $5 million
ROI: $100 million There will be break-out performers from this bunch, content will be licensed, talent will be signed… T&T can also create its own monetisable streaming platform. There is a long paper trail of the $millions earned and foreign markets gained off properly curated T&T music content when pursued like how expert stakeholders suggest
• THE BRAND ADVANCEMENT OF SOCA GLOBALLY- Soca has been used as musical template and revitaliser for Afro Beat, Reggaeton, Dancehall, and even top tier US Pop. Groovy Soca is being played in most metropolitan big brand stores and by the world's biggest DJs- but the Music and the artists have zero Brand recognition. It is time to shake up the international Music scene with some broad declarations of SOCA's Legacy impact and intent. Key articles in international niche magazines, blogs, vlogs, and newspapers backed up by action could change the way Soca and T&T music is seen by the world. Also- taking a page from Afro Beat- we should target a UK Soca chart in 3 years time.
Cost: $6 million
• Fashion programmes: Normally underfunded this subvention can provide the industry with a launching pad for its transformations and its programmes. $10 million
• Animation & Gaming Product for July 2021: As a digital industry, the business of animation and video game development as well as its production, is conducted mostly using ICT infrastructure and a full digital production pipeline that can be worked on from anywhere in the world. With limitations on both social interaction and movement in place, there has been a surge in demand globally for digital content which includes programming for education/entertainment, public service announcements, safety messages, social messaging, marketing and interactive experiences. Since physical limitations have significantly less impact on the ability to produce animation (versus live action production), the demand for animation production services has also increased relatively.
The total value of the Global Animation, VFX & Video Games industry was US$ 264 billion in 2019, and due to the current state, this will be projected to get higher. In order to position the animation industry locally to service the up-thrust in demand for its services, several administrative adjustments and fiscal support mechanisms need to be adjusted, as without these, we may find that an industry –that is otherwise suitably equipped creatively and technically to grow exponentially– may not be able to capitalize on the opportunity presented during this otherwise difficult time economically.
The Sector is headquartered in a multi-million dollar complex at Tamana and now needs an international calling card for the industry and the facility. That will be an anthologised animation series like a Caribbean version of Netflix’s immensely popular Love, Death, and Robots. The target for this is July 2021
Cost: $10 million
ROI: $25 million. The idea is to get this product licensed to a streaming service and use it as a calling card to our industry and tertiary and industrial destination
THESE ARE THE ACTUAL 7 STAND ALONE CAPITAL PROJECTS-
YOUTH, NEW ECONOMY, & CRIME PREVENTION PROJECTS: TOTAL $233 MILLION
1. The country needs to establish 2 Creative/Tech Hubs/Clusters.
• Tamana Industrial Estate;
• Tobago out of the Shaw Park Facility.
Creative Hubs have been the tried and true methods for urban metropolitan regeneration and industrial innovation acceleration in New Economies. The European Union (EU) Creative Hub has contributed billions to its GDP. Hubs also create Regulatory Sandboxes for fledgling industry geniuses like animation start-ups and practitioners. The government needs to operationalize the Tamana Animation facility as a stakeholder industrial hub. It also needs to maximize usage of the Shaw Park Facility in Tobago
Access to financing and regulatory compliance administration are two major inhibitors for young creative entrepreneurs in the industry locally. For many reasons regarding the asset base of operations, the local financing environment is not able to provide financing to them. Also, without the guidance of a corporate lawyer, certified accountant or financial advisor (whom typically start-ups do not have access to), the regulatory compliance framework is intimidating and many practitioners are not able to meet the requirements consistently. This dampers the growth possibilities for this new industry and further detracts private investors from investing.
Hubs provide an incubation period with the easing (or relief) of some regulatory requirements such as corporate tax, incorporation and filing requirements etc coupled with administration of the various incentives under one broader "Sandbox" scheme that can be monitored holistically. This proves a useful way to allow startups to grow in a sustainable and compliant manner without the obstacles that this framework may otherwise present to startup growth and drive investment towards it.
Cost: $8 million
ROI: These facilities will generate enormous innovations in tech and applications for the country. Its returns may be in the hundreds of millions…
2. Resourcing the East Port of Spain Growth Pole and Heritage City project. Reduced to 2.
• The Yoruba Village multi-purpose centre re purposing the site of Citrus Growers Association in Morvant to a multi-purpose facility managed by the Success Ujamma Cooperative that incorporates agricultural, manufacturing, educational, and entrepreneurial interventions
Cost: $20 million
ROI: This project has been incubating for over 30 years. It represents the hopes and dreams of the progressive part of the community. It will employ hundreds in construction and hundreds thereafter, but moreover it will create massive alternatives in training, counseling, and business opportunities for a beleaguered but immensely creative community
• The relocation of Despers back to the Hill. The current Despers Pan Theatre was a project plagued by mismanagement. The result was a facility that did not match the architectural specs, the community’s or the band’s needs. The failure of the facility contributed to the destruction of the community. As symbol of the Hill Despers must return triumphantly to a space that now can lead the way in the rehabilitation of its community. The facility must be redesigned!
Cost: $20 million
ROI: This project reclaims the top of Laventille for the progressive part of the community and not the criminals. The centre- properly run and constructed- will be income earning and rehabilitative
3. Intersectional Design & Heritage based projects which teleport the best architects, designers, and creatives into local communities to collaborate to create high-design projects that make new local entrepreneurial hubs, These projects- many based around local Heritage Sites- bring together the community’s genius agricultural products; culinary skills and businesses; visual and performing artists, tech and local businesses to create international tourist destinations.
Cost: $10 million for 16 pilot projects
ROI: These are income earning projects for communities. They are for internal and international tourists, so are for post COVID times, but the time to set them up is now. Each of these facilities can be earning over $10 million annually for its community. Conservatively
BIG CAPITAL PROJECTS
4. The Carnival and Steelband Museum in the Savannah. This is in the PNM Manifesto. It is a major capital construction sector project which will employ hundreds immediately. Essential to the future of the Festival and to T&T Legacy. It must be driven by stakeholder design specs. The facility should be programmed to earn over $100 million annually. It will cost $300 million and take 3 years to construct. By then hopefully there will be a vaccine and some kind of Tourist industry returning globally. Its launch should be global. So the time to start is now 1st year
Cost: $90 million
ROI: This project will take 3 years to build and begin repaying itself, but repay itself it will. This facility should earn nothing less than $100 million per year as per other institutions of its like
5. Creating the House of Music (The Museum of T&T Music) in Nelson and George Streets. Based around the historic Christopher Brothers Recording Studio site on Nelson Street this is another major capital construction sector project which will employ hundreds immediately. This will be the flagship project of the East Port of Spain Growth Pole project. It was looked upon very favourably by the IADB as the lead project for its Sustainable Cities Initiative. There is free money and soft loans for it. The rehabilitation of Laventille and EPOS will be led by this project.
Cost: $70 million
ROI: This project will take 3 years to build and begin repaying itself, but repay itself it will. This facility should earn nothing less than $100 million per year as per other institutions of its like. In the short and medium term it will be the cornerstone for the transformation of East Port of Spain and the rehabilitation of that community
SMALLER CAPITAL PROJECTS WITH HUGE FISCAL AND BRAND WINDFALLS TOTAL $13 MILLION
6. Heritage Warehouse to house all our National Collection artefacts
Cost: $3 million
ROI: This facility can be turned into a Museum destination and can earn over $10 million annually easily. Its worth is much more as it will rescue literally billions of dollars of jeopardized cultural material that at the moment is in danger of destruction
7. The conversion of the official residence/diplomatic centre of the Honourable Prime Minister into the National Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago for 2 years. Accompanied by touring exhibition of T&T artwork to High Commissions, Embassies, Museums, Galleries globally. The international media attention because of this gesture alone will be a game-changer. It will raise the profile for the Arts in this country and create the country’s greatest international man-made tourist destination. The country will receive free press in nearly every single international Art magazine & mainstream media outlet-in the world because of this gesture.
Cost: $10 million
ROI: $100 million annually in ticketed traffic, tour returns, and sales of work internationally
SMALLER IMPORTANT PROGRAMME SUPPORTS:
1. Support for Timmy Mora’s digitization of T&T’s entire TV & Film Archive: $1 million
2. The rationalization of the subventions for Representative Groups eg TT Art Society oldest representative group in the Caribbean at 77 years receives $20,000 a year! Should be $150,000 as they are in charge of the Visual Arts Heritage and practitioners of the Nation. $1 million to rationalize the subventions for all groups
THE FOLLOWING ARE COMMUNITY-BASED CREATIVE PROJECTS WHICH CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED BY FOCUSING URP/MINISTRY OF WORKS, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, COMMUNITY DEVEOPMENT RESOURCES, ETC TO DO DEVELOPMENTAL PROJECTS AND THEIR JOBS BETTER
1. Upgrade all Panyards using Lloyd Best’s Schools-in-Pan model. This was moved to URP and CPEP but has not been utilized widely or optimally design wise. It requires professional architects and designers to get involved. Here is a Best Practice template and minimum specifications: https://artistscoalition.files.wordpress.com/.../minimum...
2. Brand the City, airport, and ports as Port of Spain UNESCO Heritage Music City. T&T through Carla Foderingham and her team has earned a unique designation. We should capitalize on it.
3. Create Music Heritage Walk Zones for the Port of Spain UNESCO Heritage Music City $3 million
TO BE DONE BY OTHER MINISTRIES:
1. Ministry of Education- Create 1 pilot School for the Arts and 1 Tech Voc Magnet School at Secondary school level. There is a crisis in education in T&T in terms of industrial and landscape relevance, student attentiveness, and in the creation of a well-rounded flexible innovative creative citizen who can adapt to the many vagaries of the modern world. These schools will pioneer Best Practice to feed back into the mainstream system.
2. Ministry of Education- Incentives for tertiary education institutions in collab with private entities to offer scholarships and programs in new creative fields such as arts administration, artist management, entertainment law. There should also be focus on programs that seek to integrate technology and new media. This would be a timely collaboration with the Ministry focused on Digital Transformation.
3. Ministry of Education- Government support of education through Animation. As seen in Italy earlier this year, the nation’s public broadcaster RAI increased its kids’ content offerings to keep young Italians entertained and educated. (RAI Expands Kids’ Offerings During Italy’s Coronavirus Emergency | Animation Magazine (animationmagazine.net)) The creation of an animated mascot to support education and teach concepts to children can be a project undertaken to create education material within the coming year, as the situation with covid-19 remains uncertain, there will be a need to find other engaging ways to teach children. This follows the genre of “edu-tainment”, learning through entertainment is the modern way of teaching and learning. Supporting animated education campaigns will allow for this and create jobs for animators.
4. Ministry of Education- Full integration of the Creative Arts in the transformation of the curriculum into an online system. Let theatre, music, Film, dance, visual arts, etc make the curriculum palatable
5. Ministry of Community Development- Revisiting the idea of Community Centres. Integration of creative and cultural programs, movement/drama/music therapy and equipped small performance spaces within at risk communities which would further create paid opportunities for young creative
6. Ministry of Community Development- The restructuring of Best Village to be a developmental 365 day a year programme within the Community
7. With Ministry of Housing / Community Development. There is a decades long an outstanding request for communal institutional space for all Artists representative groups. With their already meager annual subventions of $20,000 to $100,000 - rent is a massive burden. International Best Practice in Canada, Britain, the Scandinavian countries etc is government provides institutional housing for Groups along with their subventions so that they can independently then manage their affairs. Stakeholders have in the past requested La Fantasie in St Anns as a perfect site, but are willing to consider any other worthy space,
8. With Ministry of Housing / Community Development. Low income housing for the most vulnerable artists. TUCO has an outstanding Convalescent Home proposal that rhymes with this. This could be an existing but unused structure that could be converted to simple housing and could be subsidized by both government and corporate endowments. These, as have been done for decades in larger creative metropolises and hubs, would serve as communes that are performance incubators and independent performance spaces.
9. Ministry of Digitisation: A lot of the projects here will depend upon the local online architecture for their success- the bandwidth, the ease of set-up and business for all classes, the ease of banking and setting up accounts, the ease of receiving foreign payments in a timely manner, etc. This Ministry’s collaboration and interventions will be important for the Sector and the nation
CONCLUSION:
The projects I have retained in the Priority List above are collectively about $500 million. They are:
1. Legislative and institutional projects which change the architecture of how the Arts are managed and transacted locally and bring us up to mark with international Best Practice eg Local Content, the Arts Council, etc
2. Indispensable capital projects which will employ thousands from all walks of life. They will kick start the economy and in some cases begin the rehabilitation and reform of collapsing urban communities
Once completed these institutions will be sustainable annual multi-million dollar earners. All the projects fill massive gaps in the Creative Sector apparatus that have existed for decades and which have made us unable to monetize real and latent talent on the ground. At the end of this first year exercise the Creative Industry will be earning from $3-4 billion per year conservatively. A gain of $2-3 billion!
…………………………………….
RUBADIRI VICTOR
ACTT
1-868-797-0949
Replies
"Many T&T industries have to migrate online quickly and properly. The next 6 months could see a retail Armageddon if conditions do not change- especially through the upcoming Christmas into Carnival season. An unprecedented crime spree and societal collapse can follow soon after…"
ACTT understands the ECONOMIC REALITIES in the carnival industry, they've been doing this type of analysis/recommendation for years. Nothing final or operational. Hopefully, Carnival stakeholders will see the urgency to start planning and take ACTION.
Completion of The Panyard Regularization ACT?
For some background...
Retooling the economy after the COVID pandemic shutdown and global quarantining.
Now that both parties have released their manifestoes — see here for comparisons — it is important that Sector voices present some of the best Sector thinking on the way forward.
The Artists’ Coalition of Trinidad & Tobago (ACTT) has been the primary Creative Industry lobbyist and representative group in T&T for 20 years. A mutating Creative Sector Masterplan has existed since 1997 and has been subsequently fed into by widespread consultation between groups, experts, and international agencies. Many of the working Creative programs in the public sector came from these lobbies. The initiatives here come from three places.
https://artistscoalition.wordpress.com/2020/08/09/creative-industry...
UNLEASHING THE TRINIDAD & TOBAGO CREATIVE INDUSTRIES SUBMISSION TO THE ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD© Rubadiri Victor 2016 Artists’ Coalition of Trinidad & Tobago
https://artistscoalition.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/eadb-projects-...
Sounds like the PNM MANIFESTO for 2025 -- elections start early!!!
And then $400,00,000 from the $500,000,000 GETS STOLEN and we have NOTHING TO SHOW for the other $100,000,000!!!
But I agree with one line:
4. Priority: Review and removal of "morality" laws that prohibit the use of nudity and obscene language on stage but allowed to happen in foreign mediums.
However, the last sentence in THIS IS ITEM is A BIG LIE:
1. These projects are going to put over 25,000 people directly to work and its knock-on into the economy will be enormous. Creative Sector projects have more diversified economic beneficiaries than other industries. "These will include people from all classes, ethnicities, and geographic regions."