NICH Comes Up with Assistance to Get Garifuna Collective to WOMEX 2018
The Garifuna Collective is heading to Spain for the famed World Expo of Music, having secured the necessary funding. As you know, the Collective has performed on international stages, but WOMEX is a big deal. This morning, the National Institute of Culture and History announced it will be making available the remaining thirty thousand dollars needed by the Collective to travel to the global music meeting. A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between NICH, the Garifuna Collective and the Belize Music Agency. The event takes place from October twenty-fourth to twenty-eighth. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Today at the headquarters of the National Institute of Culture and History, a memorandum of Understanding was signed between the statutory body and the Garifuna Collective and the Belize Music Agency in an effort to fund upcoming international appearances; specifically the World Music Expo to be held in October, to which the Garifuna Collective has been invited. An additional thirty thousand dollars, through NICH, was handed over to the group, allowing them to make the journey.
Al Obando
Al Obando, Road Manager, Garifuna Collective
“This one with NICH, they are giving us the balance of the money that was needed to go to WOMEX, which for the Garifuna Collective is like ten thousand dollars and the twenty thousand dollars is for the showcase section of WOMEX, which is the trade fair aspect. Getting the booth, getting all the peripherals you need for the booth, getting the people in the booth to be there every day and everything else. And so when we return, the understanding we have and the good thing that was brought to us from NICH was that they don’t want to give us anything without knowing how anybody could benefit off from it or how other people could benefit off of it.”
James Sanker
James Sanker, Belize Music Agency
“Even though the Garifuna Collective is the highlight of being showcased at a very prestigious, WOMEX, we also want to assist other artist to access that market. And so in particular, Belize Music Agency is going to be promoting other artists at displays at the booth. This will give other opportunities to other artists for the door that Garifuna Collective is opening up now; for other artists to step through that and benefit from that. We saw this as an opportunity to promote Belizean music in this space.”
Back in August we reported that the group received thirty thousand dollars through donations from Digicell, the Belize Tourism Board and the Office of the Music Ambassador. But even with that contribution, the group was short of the total funds needed to represent the country in the expo which is an international networking platform for the world music industry. This year, it will take place in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. So what was with the delay by NICH?
John Morris
Dr. John Morris, Interim President, NICH
“NICH has as one of its goals that it is an enabling environment; we want to work with the creative industry, provide funds, provide expertise, provide research, provide documentation and all of those kinds of things. And I think that too often we don’t collaborate, we don’t create these MOUs so that we can know exactly where we are going. And kudos to the Institute of Creative Arts and the Belize Music Agency to come up with this idea that we should have an MOU.”
Duane Moody
“What was the delay in that assistance coming forward?”
Dr. John Morris
“Well you know NICH is responsible for organizing the national celebrations in this country so for the last two three months we have been busy with that. But other than that too, there has been some delays because NICH has had its own internal issues and problems. When I was asked to hold over there was a couple of stuff on the agenda and this was one of those and I felt that this was a priority so we made a move on this one.”
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture, Patrick Faber says it is a big step to ensure the growth and development of the music industry in Belize.
Patrick Faber
Patrick Faber, Minister of Culture
“The whole push behind this is to ensure that our investment, our support, is put into an activity or initiatives that we can push beyond just the attendance at WOMEX. And I love what he said just now about coming back and working with our artists to that they as well can be put on that path to succeeding and representing us aboard and promoting our music abroad. And that is very, very big. And of course our efforts continue not only for the Garifuna Collective, but for all our musicians and that is where of course the Belize Music Agency comes in. So I am very, very pleased that we are able to sign on to this memorandum of understanding today.”
The Garifuna Collective has four gigs in Mexico before they fly to Europe on the twenty-second of October. The World Music Expo is from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh; the Garifuna Collective has been selected as the performers to close off the expo. Duane Moody for News Five.
