Call for applications: Creative industry stimulus programme in SA

PESP acts as an aggressive injection of income into the economy that will enable ambitious proposals that create opportunities for employment and collaboration. It also seeks to assist practitioners and their projects, and companies that incurred losses (actual and planned/existing, new and those that were at concept stage) during the COVID-19 lockdown period.

The programme is in line with a range of measures made by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the National Assembly on 16 October to set the country on a new path of growth. The stimulus programme presents an opportunity in the renewal and reimagination of the creative industry. The National Film and Video Foundation, the NAC and the Sports Trust are the three entities of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture through which PESP will be administered.

NAC CEO Rosemary Mangope said the programme sought to encourage innovation in creating and disseminating digital content and using e-commerce in the arts ecosystem.

“With the advent of COVID-19, the NAC has already been funding arts projects that show creativity in responding to the shifts in audience needs and behaviour brought about by the pandemic,” she said. “This stimulus programme presents another exciting opportunity for the NAC to play a central role in the renewal and reimagination of the creative industries. We are eager to see our sector thrive, and hope this programme will help reignite South Africans’ creative flames to produce excellent work and create jobs, particularly at local level.”

How to apply?

Creative and cultural industries who are eligible to apply for the economic stimulus package include but are not limited to:

• Cultural practitioners, creatives and heritage workers producing new work in all disciplines.
• Community art workers who facilitate community involvement.
• Art educators working in the formal and informal education sectors.
• Researchers, art historians, librarians, archivists and ethnomusicologists who are working to document new and historical creative output.
• Arts administrators who are tasked with ensuring good governance and those working in sales, marketing and distribution in the industry.

Note: Applications for creative and cultural are divided into two sections, namely Stream 1 and Stream 2. The deadline for both streams is 20 November and 27 November respectively.

Find more about the two streams here.

Professionals in the film and sports sectors should go here and here to apply.

View the original call here.