Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity

The UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, funded by the European Union, launches the call for the third round of the free online course "FondosCultura: Writing Grant Proposals to Unlock Cultural Funding”.

Framed within the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), Transcultura organized the seminar Mills and sugar: leveraging resilience through heritage management, sustainable tourism and creativity which took place in Kingston, Jamaica, from 13 to 15 December 2022.

A European Union delegation headed by the Deputy Managing Director for the Americas of the European External Action Service, Javier Niño, the Deputy Director General for International Partnerships, Myriam Farran, the Director of the Task Force Energy Platform, Cristina Lobillo, and the EU Ambassador to Cuba, Isabel Brilhante, visited the Santa Clara Convent in Havana on 1 December to learn about the progress made in the restoration of this 17th century heritage building.

The Caribbean is home to over one million people with disabilities, more than the population of many of the States in the region. Seeking to give visibility to the creative potential of this group and to advocate for culture and creativity as tools to overcome the social barriers they face, Transcultura held the online event 'Disability' or 'This Ability'? Advocating for cultural rights in the post-COVID era, on 1-2 December 2022.

Transcultura has launched a call for applications to sponsor the participation of five Caribbeans entry-level or mid-career film producers and producing filmmakers in the 2023 European Film Market (EFM) Toolbox Programmes. 

The Transcultura programme hosted the regional workshop Creative tourism in the Caribbean: leveraging sustainable development through culture, from 7 to 9 November 2022 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The event was attended by representatives of the tourism sector, the cultural and creative sectors’ authorities, and young cultural and creative practitioners from 14 Caribbean States to promote opportunities for cultural and creative professionals in the tourism industry, and at the same time fostering sustainable tourism based on identity and cultural and creative industries. 

From 2 to 4 November 2022, the UNESCO Transcultura programme, funded by the European Union, hosted the professional forum Bridging Caribbean and European cultural events through professional exchange and networking in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Representatives of 28 cultural organizations and cultural events from 11 Caribbean and European countries came together and agreed to foster cooperation and professional networking to enhance synergies, to access new markets and to promote a greater Caribbean participation in European cultural events.

On 6 October 2022, the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, Anne Lemaistre, and the Ambassador of the European Union to Cuba, Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa, held a meeting with ambassadors and representatives in Cuba of nibe Caribbean States, to present the progress and upcoming activities of the programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, targeting those countries. 

Animation, videogame and related industries were faced with numerous setbacks as a result of the pandemic. To discuss about existing challenges and opportunities for these sectors in the Caribbean in the aftermath of COVID-19, Transcultura held the online event The animation and videogame industries: collaboration, monetization and sustainable business opportunities on Tuesday, 4 October 2022.