Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange has announced that her ministry’s COVID-19 grants programme has been oversubscribed and has stopped taking new applications.

“We anticipated about one thousand applications for the individual grants of $60,000 each to members of the entertainment, culture and creative industries. We’ve had a very good response in a very short time and we have now surpassed our target for applications,” said Minister Grange.

The ministry announced the opening of applications for this programme on December 17 last year and since then, approximately 1,400 applications have reportedly been received from a wide cross-section of practitioners from the specified categories including sound system operators, musicians, singers, sound engineers, stage hands, film and video producers, writers, and journalists

“Up to yesterday afternoon (Friday), 331 members of the creative industries had already received their grants which means that so far we’ve paid out more than $19 million. By Wednesday an additional 170 people should see the grants in their accounts. That would take us to 500 paid out. And then we would have another 800 or so applications left with the majority of those already processed and have met the criteria, and will be awarded grants,” she noted.

The award of individual grants is being funded by the $90-million special support package for entertainment, culture, and creative industries practitioners. The special support package will also benefit organisations in the sectors. Minister Grange will announce details of the support programme for organisations at a later date.

In July last year Grange first announced an assistance programme for the members of the creative industries who have been severely affected by the fall-off in the industry due to the effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Initially, the fund was valued at $40 million, but this was later increased to $90 million thanks to a partnership with the Ministry of Finance.

“Most artistes have not worked since March as concerts, tours and other events in Jamaica and across the world have been cancelled. Many creative professionals have also been out of work as studios closed affecting audio, lighting and other technical production professionals, graphic designers, curators, scriptwriters, stylists, among others. The festival and events economy, which includes such events as the Calabash Literary Festival, Caribbean Fashion Week, StyleWeek, and over 7,200 events that would have been held in towns and communities across Jamaica, were all shuttered,” she told Parliament as she introduced the programme in 2021.