As of 1 April 2014, the Department of Arts and Culture no longer exists. According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, Mr Kristian Mmusi, the Ministry has been re-organised to improve efficiency and "to improve delivery of services, particularly to the outlying areas of the country". But have no fear, according to the PRO, "The Ministry will continue to run programmes such as the President's Day Competitions, Constituency Art Competitions, Exhibitions and the Arts and Culture Grant". The only one on that list that makes any difference to writers is the arts and culture grant. And how will these proposals be dealt with now?
"Arts project proposals will be dealt with appropriately by the Financial Requests Assessment Committee and the Grants Assessment Committees in line with MYSC priorities for development of the arts. Specific offices have been assigned to look after this function just like other functions of the Ministry mandate."
And to top off the entire exercise with a pretty rotten cherry, the PRO added- "In any case MYSC programmes mostly centre around the young person and therefore staff should be able to deal with issues." I'm an artist, a professional writer, but I'm 50, so how do I fit in? In their world there is nothing like an artist over 30, right? We're invisible, not important.
Right there, actually, is where the government's approach to the arts goes wrong. The fact that the arts are thrown in with the youth and sports shows that the government believes arts to be a hobby, something to keep the youth busy until they move on to more serious things. They give lip service to the fact that the arts can diversify the economy, but they don't mean it. They have no policy to implement that. They pour money into the President's Day Competitions -but are they making any real impact? Do the winners move forward? Do they develop and become sustainable? Are they professionalising? What actually is the ...
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