São Paulo – Brazil’s Ministry of Culture is awarding R$ 90,000 (US$ 36,375) to twenty initiatives designed to promote the internationalization of Brazilian culture. The public notice of project Conexão Cultura Brasil Plataformas (Brazil Culture Connection Platforms) was published last Tuesday (21st) on the Official Gazette. Registration will be open until December 4th. The winners will be announced before the end of this year.
The prize will go to projects developed in Brazil to promote local culture abroad. The prize money can be spent on onsite demonstrations of Brazilian cultural products, online promotion, educational activities involving experience exchange and cultural matchmaking.
A total amount of R$ 1.8 million (US$ 727,505) will be awarded to project submissions in 20 categories: performing arts, visual arts, music, literature, publishing market, audiovisual, games, animation, radio, TV, software applied to creative economy, advertisement, fashion, architecture, popular culture, handicraft, design, entertainment, cuisine, cultural tourism and events. Both for-profit and nonprofit enterprises are eligible. Upon registration, entrants are required to provide proof that they have been on the market for over three years, and to describe how the funds will be invested.
This Wednesday (22nd), the director for Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation at the Creative Economy Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture, Georgia Nicolau, has told ANBA that the project’s goal is to allow Brazilian cultural initiatives to reach other countries and spread Brazil’s cultural diversity.
“This has been a long time coming. Brazil imports lots of culture from other countries, such as music, series and films. However, we boast a highly complex culture and we have our own products to show. Countries like the United States and United Kingdom invest heavily on culture as a vessel to export their values,” she said. According to the director, the money is a chance for artists who don’t rely on large commercial structures to show their work to foreign culture and creative economy agents.
Nicolau also said the Ministry of Culture is giving priority to internationalization projects focusing on Latin American countries, but African and Arab countries are also targeted. “There isn’t as much interchange with so-called developing countries in this respect,” she said regarding the countries covered by the Ministry’s incentives.
This prize is part of the Conexão Cultura Brasil (Brazil Culture Connection) project, designed to promote Brazilian culture abroad. In addition to the Platforms category, whose public notice was issued last Tuesday, the project covers two other segments.
The Intercâmbios (Exchange) program has a budget of R$ 4 million (US$ 1.6 million) and will sponsor 400 people from the Brazilian culture and creative industries in attending courses and undertaking internships abroad. The Negócios (Business) program counts on a R$ 400,000 (roughly US$ 161,000) budget to take up to 60 entrepreneurs from the above industries, from this month until March 2015, to three cultural trade fairs: Santiago a Mil, in Chile, Womex, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and ARCO, in Madrid, also in Spain.
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For additional information go to: www.cultura.gov.br (in Portuguese)
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
