This Weekend the Ministry of Culture Opens the First Get-Together on National Cultural Projects 2013

This Weekend the Ministry of Culture Opens the First Get-Together on National Cultural Projects 2013
Santo Domingo, August 22 2013

The Ministry of Culture selected the Barahona province to host of the first formal work session of the “First National Call for Cultural Projects 2013,” where the provinces from the southern region that have been invited to the event will become acquainted with the interesting cultural projects that have been presented to the cabinet members of the Ministry.

This first meeting will be held in an artistic environment that will start on Friday and will end on Sunday, where there will be concerts and theater plays by artistic delegations from the region.

On Saturday, August 24th, there is a scheduled session that will be chaired by the Minister of Culture, José Antonio Rodríguez, who, together with the cabinet, will receive an award from the City of Barahona. Afterward, Ministry officials will declare Barahona as a Cultural City.

The First Call for Cultural Projects aims to open a space where cultural managers can submit projects to be implemented in their districts and which would be financed by the Ministry of Culture, for which there is a minimum of RD$100 million, according to Minister Rodríguez.

On the occasion of this event, which would last three days, Barahona will host a reception to celebrate the cultural roots of the host municipality. Representatives from the provinces of Bahoruco, Independencia and Pedernales will also participate.

The artistic program includes presentations of a street theater, a festival of outdoor reading, and street music at dawn by the Barahona Band. The program also gives emphasis to the participation of merengue singer Kinito Méndez, Xiomara Fortuna y Roldan, from Venezuela, The Gutiérrez Brothers, artistic groups from Haiti, and Legacy Women, from Puerto Rico.

The celebration will include: the construction of six educational murals, painting workshops in different parts of the province, presentations by Gagá de San Luis and Paleros from the region, the opening of crafts and food fairs in the Barahona Park; a presentation by the Jimaní and Neyba Folkloric Ballet, the Palo Sur Festival, drums groups, and the Cassandra Damirón Folkloric Ballet.

According to the rules of the call, proposal that are aimed at fostering the production, promotion, training, artistic dissemination and research in a diversity of areas or lines of action, will be considered to be cultural proposals.

The event will conclude with an intervention by Minister José Antonio Rodríguez, who will announce the projects that have been approved by the cabinet.

“Through the First National Call for Cultural Projects, the Ministry of Culture seeks to create mechanisms that will contribute to make the exercise of the cultural rights listed in the Constitution of the Republic and in the 2012-2020 National Development Strategy viable,” said Carlos Santos, Coordinator of the Vice Ministry of Institutional Development.
In addition to the Ministry of Culture, the call has the support of the Dominican Municipal League, which is the governing body of the municipalities of the country, and of the Dominican Federation of Municipalities.

Selected proposals will make up a portfolio and may be financed with funds from the national budget, with external funds or by mixed partnerships, including the budgets allocated for the cultural sector by the local governments and the private sector, which is intended for planning cultural activities.