Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 24 March 2025 –The Caribbean Tradition Fund (CCF) has introduced its second cohort of grantees. Twenty-five grants will likely be awarded to creatives and cultural organizations from Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Curaçao, and the Cayman Islands. The chosen initiatives will obtain funding valued at USD 400,000.
These grants, awarded underneath three classes—Migration, Archiving & Reminiscence, and Caribbean Collaboration—will assist initiatives that protect and have a good time Caribbean heritage, discover migration’s cultural influence, and foster regional inventive partnerships.
Migration (5 grants, USD 10,000 every): Tasks exploring migration’s cultural influence and fostering regional connections
Narratives of Change (Cayman Islands)
Mama Baranka (Curaçao)
Bigidi (Guadeloupe)
Para Impresionar ¿A Quién? (Puerto Rico)
Lakay (andépandans) (St. Lucia)
Archiving & Reminiscence (10 grants, USD 10,000 every): Tasks preserving and documenting Caribbean heritage
Bon Kabei (Good Hair) (Curaçao)
Cinuca (Guadeloupe)
I Am Lolita Lebrón (Puerto Rico)
Matronas de las Luchas (Puerto Rico)
MAC en el Barrio Digital Archive (Puerto Rico)
Mujeres del Cine Boricua (Puerto Rico)
Paradoja en el Paraíso (Puerto Rico)
Bolom Delivery (St. Lucia)
Machete, Masquerade & Reminiscence (St. Lucia)
O.N.G. (Operation Nex’ Era) (St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
Caribbean Collaboration (10 grants, USD 25,000 every): Tasks fostering inventive partnerships throughout the area
Les Information de la MAF (Guadeloupe/French Guiana)
Pawòl a Mas (Guadeloupe/St. Lucia/Trinidad & Tobago)
Temporal: Sanando el Cuerpo y la Tierra (Puerto Rico/Barbados)
Conjunto Antillano (Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic/Cuba)
Bridging the Archipelago (Puerto Rico/Dominican Republic)
La Memoria de la Arcilla (Puerto Rico/Cuba/Dominican Republic)
It Takes a Village: Honoring Caribbean Matriarchs (Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands)
Entre Cosmovisiones y Resistencia (Puerto Rico/Guadeloupe/Aruba)
Hairouna Movie Competition (St. Vincent & the Grenadines/Haiti)
Music, Movie & Storytelling (St. Vincent & the Grenadines/Trinidad & Tobago)
In line with CCF Government Director, Kellie Magnus, “The success of our first spherical allowed us to lift further funds, making our second cohort even bigger. We consider deeply in fostering Caribbean collaboration and we’re excited to proceed increasing alternatives for creatives throughout the area.”
Cohort 1 grantee, Victoria Apolinario, a Dominican filmmaker is aware of this first-hand. “With the assist of the Caribbean Tradition Fund, I can now say that I’m the Coordinator of Muestra Karibe, a non-fiction movie house for the Caribbean and its diasporas. That is no small feat—past advancing my particular person profession, it is usually a political assertion, creating areas for us to see and know one another by artwork.”
“One of many biggest challenges artists face is entry to sources. The Caribbean Tradition Fund understands that we’re unbiased creators. It gives validation for our proposals, attracting extra companions and enabling additional development” added Apolinario.
This expertise was echoed by Haitian culinary artist Wizeman Seide, whose Caribbean Culinary Neighborhood mission additionally benefited from the primary spherical of funding.
“Receiving the Caribbean Tradition Fund grant was really transformative—it was the primary funding I ever acquired for a mission. It allowed me to construction my initiative, entry sources I by no means had earlier than, and show that years of exhausting work have been main in the precise route. This fund isn’t just assist—it’s a lever. It opens doorways, validates inventive initiatives, and creates new alternatives.”
The choice course of was led by a jury of specialists from the eligible international locations on this spherical. Raymona Henry-Wynne, Government Director of the Cultural Improvement Basis in St. Lucia, was one of many jurors for Cohort 2. She described the expertise as “an eye-opening glimpse into the huge inventive potential of the area.”
The Caribbean Tradition Fund was created to offer monetary assist to Caribbean creatives, serving to them overcome boundaries to funding and broaden their work. Funds for the second spherical of grants have been supplied by the Andrew W. Mellon Basis and Open Society Foundations.
With this second cohort now underway, CCF is making ready to launch new funding initiatives, together with an identical grants program to draw new donors to the cultural sector. Moreover, CCF is engaged on a searchable on-line database of funding alternatives, offering artists with ongoing entry to sources and monetary assist.
For extra info on the Caribbean Tradition Fund and the chosen initiatives, go to www.caribbeanculturefund.org.
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