Kingston Creative has become the first Caribbean non-governmental organization to receive funding under the UNESCO Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals, a major milestone for Jamaica and the Caribbean creative sector.
Selected by an independent panel of experts from 1,068 applications worldwide, Kingston Creative was one of only 16 initiatives selected under UNESCO’s 2026 Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals.
Through the programme, UNESCO is investing more than US$750,000, with generous support from the Government of Norway, to strengthen the professional, social and economic status of artists while advancing artistic freedom around the world.
The award will support the Caribbean Artist Resilience and Empowerment (CARE) Programme, an 18-month regional initiative that will begin in Jamaica before expanding to Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. The initiative will strengthen the rights, economic resilience, mobility and disaster preparedness of artists and cultural professionals across the region.
This initiative demonstrates that sustaining artists is an investment in resilient communities. Through the UNESCO Aschberg Programme, we are supporting practical solutions that strengthen artistic freedom, improve the working conditions of cultural professionals and ensure that creativity remains a driving force for sustainable development across the Caribbean. We congratulate Kingston Creative on this pioneering achievement and look forward to the positive regional impact of the CARE Programme.
Yuri Peshkov, Head of the Culture Programme, UNESCO Office for the Caribbean
After Hurricane Melissa, Kingston Creative surveyed more than 500 artists and creative practitioners across Jamaica. The results revealed the devastating impact on the creative sector: more than 70% had lost income due to cancelled performances and exhibitions, while 60% reported damage to studios, equipment, or creative workspaces.
The findings helped inform Jamaica’s Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) for the Culture Sector, developed with technical support from the UNESCO Office for the Caribbean.
In response, Kingston Creative launched the Creative Resilience Fund, providing emergency financial assistance to more than 80 artists and creative practitioners affected by the natural disaster.
Artists in Small Island Developing States are on the front line of the climate crisis, yet they are too often invisible in recovery planning. This grant recognizes that Caribbean creatives matter and that the systems that protect them must be built here, by us, for the region and the world.
Andrea Dempster Chung, Co-founder and Executive Director, Kingston Creative
Through the CARE Programme, Kingston Creative will conduct regional research, deliver capacity building for 250 artists and cultural professionals, develop a Cultural Crisis Resilience Toolkit for Small Island Development States (SIDS), provide grants to support displaced artists, and convene a regional forum to strengthen cultural resilience across the Caribbean.
The UNESCO Aschberg Programme advances the 1980 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of the Artist and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, supporting initiatives that strengthen artists’ rights, improve working conditions, and safeguard artistic freedom worldwide.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/kingston-creative-becomes-first-caribbean-ngo-awarded-unesco-aschberg-programme-grant?hub=701
