Creative Economy Grant Fund Launch

[music] Good day to one and all. Let me officially welcome you to the longanticipated creative economy grant fund launch. Let's begin with official proceedings. That's the national anthem and it will be played by one and only shs followed by prayers. Please stand for the national >> [music] [music] >> Thank you, J. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to stay with us. He's also our grant recipient. So, to bless today's proceedings, I'd like to invite a good friend, Alicia, to lead us in prayer. >> Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us together today and for giving us the opportunity to share this time with one another. Thank you for your goodness, your grace, and your continued protection over our lives. As we begin, we invite your presence into this gathering. Guide our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Give us wisdom, understanding, patience, and open hearts so that everything we do today may be productive and meaningful. In Jesus name we pray. >> Amen. >> Thank you, Alicia. You could have your seat now. A special thanks to one and all in attendance. I am Sant Justin your officionado for today. Please allow me to begin by establishing protocol. Honorable Dr. Ernest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage. Miss Don Donin Vite, Permanent Secretary in the Department of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage. Mr. Calvin Lee, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Department of Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage, staff of the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture, and Heritage, representative of No, sorry, we don't have a representative. Grant recipients, special invited guests, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. In August 2025, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre shook the creative sector when he announced a one-time grant assistance program for the island's creative sector. His promise was that of $350,000, which was expected to be divided amongst applicants by the Department of Creative Industries. As expected, the applications flooded the desks of the creative officers, by which time it was realized that $350,000 would not be enough to even wet a taste bud. But I'm only here to do the mastering of ceremonies. Permit me to introduce your first speaker who will deliver the finer details about the journey for the past year leading up to now. Help me welcome the deputy permanent secretary in the department of creative industries, Mr. Calvin. [applause] >> Uh, thank you, Miss Master Ceremonies. Good morning, everyone. Good day. Welcome. Allow me to adopt the I'm supposed to hold it. Where's your All right. Um. All right. Allow me to adopt the protocol established, but also to recognize uh our deputy prime minister and our minister for tourism, commerce, creative industries, culture, heritage. I hope I didn't leave out anything. [laughter] And our deputy permanent secretary. Thanks. Um today is very special for the department, for the ministry as it signals the commencement of the roll out of our creative industries grant. Uh the process started just over a year ago when the prime minister announced the creative industries grant to spur some uh movement within our creative sector. Um as our master ceremony said mentioned the response was overwhelming, right? Um and rightly so. Um, but moving forward with that, we recognized that we had a lot to do to try to to deal with that because a lot of the applications that we we got were pretty substantial. They were they made sense. Um, some were able to refer to to other agencies because of what they were. But in the so since then what we had done was again with the support of our minister um searched for additional funding which took some time and we are so happy at this juncture um have budget having being passed other um other processes being having gone through and that we have are now able to start rolling out the grants. Um, so we received over a thousand of them. Well, sorry, almost a thousand grants uh in rolling them out. Um, sorry, sorry, applications applications. Um, and we've done our best up to this point to to to roll out what we could. Um, the application process is ongoing. So, those of you who have applied and not yet received a response from the ministry, just bear a little patience with us. It's the the response is coming, right? Um what was the other thing? Uh Ryan and Yeah. Um so but going forward we will um seek to to engage most most persons engage most persons. Um we want to thank all of those who have applied for it. And as you can see behind us are some of the the the products uh on display here today. Um we expect to continue to support our creative industries and also um to improve the the framework that we work with to see as far as we can go to make the economy the creative industry sector a viable sector for all. So with those few words, let me thank you for all for being here. Um, and I hand you back over to >> Thank you very much, uh, DPS Lee. Uh, two things to note from DPS Le's, uh, statement. Today is the commencement of the processing, so many more people to be to be called. Um, did you speak about I don't know if I missed it the amount that has been spent so far. So, so we'll leave that for Minister to John. But just to let you know, you are among roughly 60 people that have already been contacted and so far the bill, let me tell you, is somewhere in the region of half a million dollars spent on our creative industry. Can we get a round of applause? [applause] Thank you. Thank you. Secondly to note the department of c creative industries commits to continuing to support the creative sector. So we encourage our creatives to continue bringing the ideas come up with the ideas so that we can grow our creative sector. I'd like to now take a look at a few of the pieces on display today. Not sure if you noticed, but behind me we have a few pieces on display. The first piece we're going to speak about was done by Mr. Andrew Mis Modisier. That is the big rectangular 3D piece on on the table. So first about Mr. Modisier, he's a St. Lucian artist breathing new life into the traditional art of calabash carving. He transforms these goods into exquisite works of art including intricately carved lanterns, bowls, jewelry and bags noted on the left side. So let's speak about the the piece the 3D piece unite and take flight. That is the name of this piece. The sculpture is made of three locally grown wood types. The suspended pieces are from West Indian mahogany and laurel and the cage is made of [snorts] salmon. Side view. The side view shows five separated suspended pieces. They represent the five continents separated by borders, politics and ideologies. Behind them are the bars of the cage made of salmon. The hardest of the three wood wood types indicated indicating their im imprisonment to diversify sorry imprisonment to divisive ideologies and haphazard policies while still providing some structure. The front view unity is achieved by our individual choice to align with our creator's purpose. A change of our perspective from selfishness to community will not rob us of of our individuality as shown by the different wood types, but allows us to saw and escape cap captivity of these barriers. The hanging chisels represent the creator's continuous work. So, I'm not I'm not too sure if you notice, but to view this piece properly, you must view it from two sides. First you view it from the front and then from the left side which gives you a different angle of the piece. So before you leave en sure remember to take a a good look at it. I'd like to now call on Denel James. He is an author and also a recipient. He's going to tell us about his book also on display. [applause] Thank you. Good morning everyone. I would first like to thank the Department of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture, and Heritage for the invitation to be here this morning and for giving me this opportunity to say a few words. As a writer and creative, I understand that having an idea is sometimes the easiest part. The challenge is finding the resources, the support, and sometimes even the confidence needed to take the idea from something that exists in the mind to something that other people can actually see, hear, or read, or maybe even experience. Creatives invest a lot of themselves into what they do. Whether it is writing, music, visual art, fashion, craft, film, photography, or any other form of creative expression, there is usually a great deal happening behind a finished product that people never get to see. There are costs, there are sacrifices, there are moments of doubt. And there are many talented people who have wonderful ideas but simply may not have the financial resources to bring those ideas to life. That is why an initiative such as the creative grant is something so special. It is more than simply providing financial assistance. It is an investment in St. Lucian talent. That their work can contribute to our economy and that creativity can be more than just a passion. It can become an opportunity, a business, a career, and even a legacy. As someone who has gone through the process of taking my writing from words on a page to a soontobe fully published book, I have gained an even greater appreciation for the amount of work, investment, and perseverance required to bring a creative vision to completion. So, I encourage my fellow creatives to take advantage of opportunities such as this one. Continue creating, continue developing your craft. And most importantly, do not be afraid to put your work forward. St. Lucia has no shortage of talent. Some sometimes, sorry, sometimes what the talent needs is simply an opportunity. I commend the government and the department for continuing to create avenues through which our creative people can grow, develop and contribute even more to our country. Thank you and I look forward to seeing what this initiative will help St. Lucian's and St. Lucian creatives bring to life. Thank you again. [applause] >> [applause] >> very true words spoken there especially when he said St. Lucia is not short of talent. So next permit me to call on Miss Crystal Deise. She is a designer and she's going to give a brief description of her piece which is to my left. Thank you. Good morning everyone. Thank you. So I am the creative director and fashion designer behind Privilege by Crystal Deise and we are a fashion brand, a St. ution fashion brand with a particular interest in contemporary design. Um so we specifically have emphasis on natural fibers and thoughtful design with our evolving um revolution over sustainable garments. Right? So I started Pvage with a focus on swimwear. It was not always resort wear and uh the brand developed when I realized there was a greater need to showcase St. Lucia's culture, Caribbean culture and living in the Caribbean. And today privilege creates pieces that are designed to feel luxurious, wearable and expressive. So as a designer, I am particularly interested in exploring how we can take things that are naturally around us and create something beautiful. for example, our landscapes, um, our oceans and our flora and fauna basically. Okay. So, moving into the collection that I put more focus on in regards to the creative economy, which is wooden vista. It's a small collection I developed while putting together a Creole collection over the years. And I normally use Madras in my designs. And I was thinking, hey, why not use the things that we normally um eat during our Creole festivities. For example, the bread fruit and the avocado. and that was right in my backyard. So I went ahead and took the breadoot leaf and the avocado leaf and created motifs that I imprinted on the natural fibers. It was a small collection. I wasn't sure how persons would have taken it, received it. However, it was very wellreceived and uh I am looking forward to expanding on that. I only created four pieces. It was the Breadford print and the avocado print is on this one. Right. Okay. So, Verdant Vista, which is what I named the collection, it explores the relationship between fashion and St. Lucia's natural landscape. And the project allows me to experiment with botanical inspired motifs. So like I mentioned, we are an evolving sustainable brand and I am looking forward to working with natural dyes. So turmeric, beet juice and putting these on the fabric. So, we're not only we won't only be using natural fibers, but natural plant-based dyes as well. Things that can be found right here in St. Lucia. So I think that the Verdant Vista collection demonstrates how creativity can become an economic product and uh it takes inspiration from our natural environment and it transformed it into design and into a collection that could be marketed and potentially be exported. And what I also like about this collection and this opportunity is that it also allows me to collaborate with other creatives like myself. So for example, the prince I would love to find a few artisans that are willing to collaborate with my brand and create something beautiful not just for my brand but for St. Lucia. Right. So for us the initiative by the creative economy is about recognizing that our ideas and our culture, our creativity and skills have economic value. It gives us the opportunity to develop those ideas more intentionally and to take privilege to another step towards becoming a stronger more econom commercially viable St. Lucian fashion brand and not only recognized here in St. Lucia but internationally as well. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Miss Deise. August 2026 marked a year since the grant was announced. During that time, hundreds of calls were placed to the creative industries department with one simple question when and I know I know at least one person in here who placed about 50 of those calls. We will explain or DPS went in uh he spoke a little bit about um why the when took so long, but I think we'll get a little more on that a little later. But first, I must extend gratitude on behalf of the Department of Creative Industries to the recipients. Your patience is truly appreciated. I'd like to call on one more person uh from the first group of recipients. She's also a designer and she represents create she represents a group of creatives in St. Lucia who don't wait. They know what they want, find the funding, and they go after it. She's been around for for a while. Let's put our hands together for Miss Noelina St. A of Tisuk. >> Good morning everyone. Permit me to adopt the protocol that has already been established. I am Noelina Setage and I am the founder and creative director of Tfizuk Scrio. TfiZuk is a line of innovative handbags and we specialize in creating novel handbags, handbags that are different, bold and hopefully unforgettable. So my journey actually started way back in 2016 when I invented the world's the world's first interchangeable handbag. And I'm proud to boast that I was the first because very recently other people have been entering the interchangeable field. I had a model who got shy so I have to show you some of my skins here. So the skins allow you to change bags in seconds. No unpacking required. And back in 2017 November, I launched at the Singha Taiwan trade show exhibition and it was wellreceived. I sold some handbags and that really reinforced what I already knew that people wanted my product. But unfortunately, just having a great idea, it's not really enough to execute it well, make it a reality because the funding has always been an issue. However, I didn't get discouraged. I continued to design and in 2019, I designed these beautiful shoulder bags on the table behind me. their shoulder bags with attitude and that is my moto the bags with attitude. So it has been a long journey as I said just having an idea is not enough to make my bags available to the wider public which has always been my goal and this journey has brought me here and that is why I'm so incredibly thankful. I want to start by thanking you first, honorable Ernes. I've called you personally. You've always listened and I feel like you've heard my cries for help and by making this grants possible. You have opened or reopened uh the door for me to make my dreams a reality. I also want to thank you, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Mr. Calvin Lee. Thank you for your part in making this grant possible. I know I've pitched my idea to you personally and you've listened patiently. I'm very passionate. I want to take over the world with my bags, but you've always you've always listened. You've never made me feel like I was delusional. So, thank you for that. And I see him hiding in the back there. I want to personally thank you, Mr. Imran Emanuel. Like I said, I started back in 2016, well over 10 years ago. at the time you listened as well and you were willing to help but with not much funding or no funding available there was not much you could do. So for us I feel like this is a full circle moment being able to receive the call from you that the check is available at Treasury means more to me than you probably know. So yes, so thank you for that this opportunity in 2026. I'm proud to say that I have again invented and designed new handbags, trendy handbags. And if you know Crocs, if you know the Stanley Cup, if you know Lab Boooos, you know how viral products can be with social media. I really believe that my products, they have that commercial viability. I'll borrow from you. I really believe that they will do well. So, I want to thank you for this grant. This grant is going to help me with production. It's going to help me with branding and it's going to help me make my bags available to the the wider world. I'm thinking big and I'm thinking large. Uh yes. So my goal again is simple. Wherever people purchase a Tfisuk handbag, I want them to say where is this bag from? And of course I want the answer to be St. Lucia. And the name being Creole, I feel like wherever it's purchased, people will be able to share in a little piece of our St. Lucian culture. So, thank you once again for believing in us creatives. Thank you for investing in our ideas and for giving people like me the opportunity to turn my ideas into reality. Oh, and one more thing. Remember when you see a TV handbag, remember we did it here first. Thank you. [applause] Thank you very much, Miss St. A, and everybody who was brave enough to come up here and speak. Everybody was brave enough. [laughter] So, we saw designers, we saw sculptures, we saw authors. I think it's now to it's now time for us to start moving a little bit. You can get up if you want, but it's time to bring bring on some entertainment and bringing on the Genesis drummers who are also recipients. So, round of applause for the Genesis drummers. [applause] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] [applause] >> So I I noted uh two three people specifically who well two two left their seat. That's who it you wanted to. Okay. All right. Well, at least you move in your seat. Yeah. I saw I saw the minister holding on to his seat as well. Yeah, that's why I only told them two minutes cuz I didn't want um us for to forget where we were. Our next speaker, we call him the brains of the operation. He's the captain of the ship and the one who said that we were all He's the one who said what we were all thinking. $350,000. Really, >> Dr. Ernest Hill is here today to give us a more in-depth account of how we got here today and how he was able to convince honorable Philip Jpierre to invest more directly into the island's creative sector. Let's welcome the deputy prime minister and minister with responsibilities for the creative industries, Dr. Ernest Hill. [applause] >> Thank you very much. master ceremony. I touched somebody's phone. I'm not sure what happened to it. Um, let me recognize protocol already established and of course recognized the permanent secretary, the deputy permanent secretary. Um, creative officers and staff of the Ministry of Tourism, Investment, Commerce, Creative Industries, Culture and Heritage. I think we should well I I I want to start by offering an apology to all the applicants who had to wait so long for them to finally get word on whether or not they would be receiving a grant and for them to actually start receiving grants because in all fairness um for some individuals who applied very early it's been a long wait and in the public service our duty is to serve and of course we have to recognize that you know some of you are waiting anxiously I don't have to tell you I got so many messages from creatives asking me when the grant will be made available and some people almost you know said some very strong language use some strong language you know in terms of the grants and and even on Facebook a few comments and they were not entire ly wrong in being anxious and being frustrated with the process. We too we were frustrated with the process. But sometimes we just have to understand that things take time and processes have to be followed. So maybe I can share with you probably how we got to where we are today. We received numerous requests at the ministry for assistance from creatives but we don't have an allocation that is big enough to satisfy all those needs. So in a conversation with the prime minister I was complaining to him chief we really need more money to be able to support you know the groups and we have so many brilliant ideas but we just don't have the money to give it to them. So he said to me, you know, Dess um let let's you know establish a creative grants fund to give creatives some extra support. I tell him well yeah well let's do it. And then first of all I wasn't expecting him to have offered as much as he did. He then went on and announced he'll be making $350,000 available. I thought he probably will give us an extra $200,000. in my naivity. Yeah. And I'll come to that in a while. And but you announced $350,000. So I was like, "Yeah, we get a little raise. We'll be able to sponsor a little more product." Cuz we were getting a lot of, you know, proposals. What I did not factor in is one thing when you've not made an announcement, people are sending regular requests to you, but the day you go and make an announcement that you have money and you're giving people is a whole different ballgame. So the day we made the announcement and the PSNM established criteria or whatnot, let me tell you the literally the ministry got flooded with applications. So whereas before you probably would get a little 20 30 requests, you probably can only fund 10 15, we now got almost 1,000, you know, applications and we had $350,000. The value of all the applications we got was $8.2 million in that region. So just think about that. When we believe we were solving a problem, we created a bigger problem. So we had all we now had almost a thousand applications over $8 million. Where we going to get that money from? So the prime minister said to me, you know what? Give out what you you have as much as possible. When it finish, we'll see what we can do. And I was like, no, no, no. Let's cuz I real I know the public service a little bit. if we spend the money we have likely to get more in a hurry. So we decided no. The ministry sat down and they looked at all the applications and set up a criteria and scored them literally all of them. So you can imagine the time it took to go through all these proposals and then to score them and rung them and then to identify what would the which ones were the most exciting viable you know deliverable ideas and they came up with 350 out of the almost 1,000 and that 350 cost about $3 something million. Now remember we have $350,000 so we still have a problem. Again spoke to the prime minister he said you know what in the next bud in the budget we're going to put he'll put $1 million. Now he didn't say more but I I take that to mean more to the 350 he already had promised. Isn't that fair? >> Cuz you had to give us 350 and now he put in 1 million there. That 350 we you have to add it. Yeah. Um, so in the budget he added $1 million for us to be able to support the grants applications. But then the money was coming through a funding source, not government revenue, not cash in the treasury. So we had to wait on the funding source, prepare all the documents. The ministry, the PS had to prepare the documents to send it to the funding source for the grant and then it finally came through. It had to go through the budget. Budget is in April, but it had to be approved. Um so it was approved in May and then sent it to the funding agency and then you can imagine you know so May it was approved in the budget um then sent to the funding agency and it was not until I think July or so we got the approval and the money was made available. Now we've not collected the 350 yet which we have to do very shortly. Um so it took some time. It really took some time and it's no fault of yours. It's no fault of the ministry. We really was trying to get more money to satisfy more of the demands that we um we had. So we at a point now where we can say we have the million dollars and I'll be asking for the 350 and we can start distributing to as many of the 350. Now the $1.35 million cannot because I told you the 350 is just over $3 million. So that's it's still not enough. So I now have to figure out how I can say to the prime minister, you know what, PM, let's make the million dollars an annual thing. So that's what I'm going to ask him. You know, at least from now on, if he agrees. Now, having said that, I must tell you, we are living in some very difficult times. The war and supply chain issues and all those things are really affecting us. Um, starting to affect us and is having a a brutal impact on us. the the cost of fuel going up. So your light bill is going to go up. Government revenue is down because of we have to we cannot stop subsidizing fuel. We cannot otherwise the price of fuel will be too high for St. Lucian. [snorts] Of course government might will have to raise it slightly but we cannot let you pay the full price of fuel because it's going to be too much. Likewise for cooking gas if government stop subsidizing cooking gas how people will afford to buy a tank of gas. So government has to continue subsidizing that. So it means that we have a lot less revenue than we had this time last year. But you know we've been through tough times before. We will survive and then we'll take off once again. But it's a little challenging now. But I will ask the prime minister to make the million dollars available every year for creatives. So at least you know rather than just having a little $200,000 we now have $1 million to be able to support. I don't know if it will be agreed to but I'm going to make the case for it and I'm going to make the case because I believe when we look at the ideas that came from you they are powerful ideas and we need to support it and this government ever since 2021 when I became of creative industries we were very clear that we are going to give priority to creatives it is an industry that we have to build in St. Lushia for like what Nolina said and somebody else before that you can create sustainable livelihoods through the creative expressions of our people and we need to give them more support. Creatives have to feel comfortable that there's enough space in the country. There's a landscape and ecosystem that will allow their talents to bring in [snorts] the resources they need for a sustainable livelihood. and and we that's what we want to create whether Nolina producing and exporting whether the music that's produced you know allows people to invite you to perform overseas and you make a living out of it whether the books although these days people not reading like before by books I I don't even know how that works in that space but what can you do the design of the dresses for example and we're doing that a lot I want to come to um the fashion um industry in a Well, how we can work with creatives who make sure that they are able to create livelihoods. So, you don't have to depend on somebody, you can depend on your creative expression to earn a livelihood. Um, when I looked at the categories, um, most of the applications we got is for music as expected. Um, and then arts and craft. Um then I think arts and craft and I want you to to have an idea. So it was music, art and craft, film, visual arts, design, literary arts, community based cultural projects, dance, um folk and traditional um arts and theater last. Now I must say I'm a little disappointed. I probably hope fata would be a little higher up there. But those were the the c the ranking in terms of the number of the the categories in which we receive um support. Music of course would be the most the most popular but we take the creative industries very seriously as a government very very seriously and we'll be doing there'll be two major initiatives I think I announced them in the budget in April and we working really hard at getting them going. The first one is that we are create we're going to establish in in B we already have the factory shell and we're working with Taiwanese government on it is a fashion and design production facility. So basically what we saying is that we will be do training for persons involved in fashion and design but we recognize a lot of individuals don't have the production capacity. They don't have it. They don't have the machines. they don't have the the the commercial um you know machines that are needed to to drive at that level. You will be able to go there as a creative with your designs and if you want to produce 15 dresses the facility will be there for you to manufacture 15 dresses. You don't have to be searching where it is you're going to produce your 15 dresses. You'll have a state-of-the-art facility where you can go in there. If you're producing your bags and you know your capacity is not so much at your home if you're operating there, you can go to the facility, rent it for half a day or whatever and produce your bags there. So if you have an order from somebody for 40 bags from somewhere, you can go in there, rent the facility, produce your 40 bags and ship it out. We're also looking at having centralized purchase of inputs. But again, when you as one individual have to buy inputs, the unit cost can be kind of high. But if we can establish the unit in a way, the facility in a way where it can buy some of the basic inputs that are needed um we'll be able to reduce the unit cost for the creative. So we want the creatives certainly those in fashion and design to have their own dedicated facility um to be able um to to to do so and I think it will help a lot. We're also going to be doing it for agrop processing and manufacturing for for that side but certainly in our case and we are we starting I think the the expert from Taiwan is coming in over the next few days. So you already have the facility to sit with us and to put everything in place for us to be able to offer that to our creatives and I think it will be a very powerful addition for the creative industries to be able to do so. Another project we've been thinking about is how we can and it's noteworthy that most of the applications were from pool for music and it's something that I started a few years ago in St. Lucia. It's kind of sporadic, you know, a a a music lab somewhere, a recording studio somewhere. And we need to take a more systematic look at it and say, is it going can we conceive of a project where in every constituency or every comm community major community we have a recording studio available? So guys are be thinking of going up to castries or going to certain places but every community I mean an has one quite a few in the north. But what about Miku? What's about Denry? What's about those other areas? How we can make sure that the thousands of young men who believe they can produce good quality music? And remember, I say good quality music. I don't know what that means, but I know it when it bad, I know it bad. I may not know when it good, but I know when it bad. Um to produce to produce music that can go global and that can sell and that can lift the the profile of of St. Lucia. So I I think for our sake we we are going to invest more in the creatives and we'll be able to give them more support. So this grant facility really is just a you know a stepping stone is just to say to you that we hear your plea your your request constantly for some small support to make it happen and we are going to assist you. Um I'm not sure how many applications we will be able to satisfy with the $1.35 million already. Those that we have approved and started dispersing is about half a million dollars. Um so it might be close to 200 might be just over 100. I'm not sure exactly. Um but it is a start. The big headache will be how do we do with the balance of persons that we don't have money to give assistance to? And it's it's a little difficult because when somebody comes to you in the business side of it and they submit a business plan, a business proposal, you can see that whether that's viable or not. You can do an assessment like that. But when a creative comes with a brilliant idea that's not necessarily a enterprise, a business enterprise, it's just an expression. You can't you can't put money to that. There's not money there's no profit and loss to that. That's creative expression. Somebody wants to, for example, if somebody wants to have an art exhibition, they have a collection of paintings. They want to paint a few a series, a whole new set of paintings, and they want to put an exhibition. And you want to give them support to do it. You can't measure that in dollars and cents. You understand? Somebody can come and tell you, I want to produce bags. I would sell it at that price. And then you can judge, you know, that whether that's a viable business. and MSME and youth economy can look at your business idea. But some ideas are just their value is not in dollars and cents. It's the intrinsic woof and of course every creative believe the idea is the most brilliant idea and the idea is the best. But sometimes you have to say to them you know you really cannot do it and it's always painful to do so. But I'm glad we've started and today we can start handing out checks and we'll continue to do so. Um, I'm glad to see some of my favorite people are here um to get to get their checks today. Um, and I'm sure they're going to make very good use of it. So, creatives, we want to work together. We're going to continue to support you. Um, like I said, it's difficult times, so I cannot boast. We can give you a lot more than what we've been given, but we will be committed as we have been to giving you more support, more encouragement, and to to be there with you. I mean the prime minister would have loved to be here this morning when he knew we were starting to issue the the checks to you. Um he thought we were taking we he too thought we were taking a bit of a time to get it done. But I think it is important we got it right and we we cannot say we've gotten it totally right but I think we've made a lot of progress to be fair and reasonable in what we're doing. So you may not get all that you ask for but we'll try and make sure as many people as possible get some support and and that's probably important. So I will convey to him with your permission that you all believe the grand facility should become annual and I'm sure by the n of some of your heads you agree with me. So, I'll go and make the case and hopefully we'll be able to um you know continue to give support to the creatives and of course if things get better, which I'm sure it will, um we can even expand it and do even more for creatives. So, thank you so very much this morning and yeah, all the best. I really hope um you have uh an appreciation of the whole process of how this works. So sometimes an announcement is made and you why that taking so long. Now we can understand why. Yeah. [snorts] Takeaway point. The government continues to search for avenues of support for the creative industries. very important, very very very important. And now the moment is here. Um the ceremonial check handover. The the individual recipients are asked to proceed to the front for a photo op with an oversized check. These checks represent new beginnings for many of these recipients. For others, this is a renewed investment which will ensure further expansion and growth. So, I would like to invite um we could start with DPS Lee to hand over a few checks. Ceremonial ceremonial that is All right. So, who is for who is here? Uh, we could start with uh Wule. I can say that on TV, right? Wu. Yeah. All right. >> Um I'm unfortunately I'm sorry. Uh if it had numbers on it, we would give it to you, but it doesn't have any numbers. Um Genesis Drummers, could we get a representative? CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] >> [sighs] >> calling on Mr. Denzel James [applause] >> [snorts] >> Sorry. >> Thank you. DPS Lee, can we um PS would you mind giving out minister? >> Okay. Minister. >> Yes. Okay. Miss Crystal Deiss [applause] Miss Bashana, sorry. Shadria de. >> The other half. Yes. [laughter] [applause] And last but not least, Miss Noelina Centage. [applause] a long composition. Okay. And now to our final entertainment piece. We call on yet another grant recipient, Mishadria. Mishadria Tash Days of Moves for Days. >> Winners. [singing and music] I'm going to try it in the end. >> [music] >> Okay, we had a video but he was about to show it. Just want to thank the Ministry of Creative Industries as well as the government of St. Lucia for this grant um for our dance company. It represents more than just a financial support. It also represents um believing in the power of art of the different creative arts. Our goal has always been youth development. Um dance being something that help us with confidence, self-confidence. A lot of the young girls coming up, they want to dance, they're not confident. I also teach at the Miku Secondary School, theater arts. So I see them coming up and you know they want to do it but they don't know the proper way to. So having this support is going to help us um do proper sessions in the rural communities especially in Miku Denry Bufort. you know some of them don't have the opportunities like the people up cast to start dancing from four you know four years old they coming it um at a later stage basically so helping to with the mindset behind it the discipline behind dance and also this help us to be able to purchase materials and also software that we can create and also share our work of a higher quality to improve it and being from the Denry Valley a lot of the music is coming from there like the minister said you know we have our music from St. Lucia and a lot of people think that Denry segment is just girration but we've made original Denry segment moves moves for days documented tutorial so when they come to perform for an artist is not just lineup you know there's a move with a name it has a foundation from a traditional background we always um do classes to educate ourself with like the folk dances traditional and so forth we love collaboration we can find creative ways for cross-promoting with fashion your handbags probably do a little dance video something, you know, that sort of thing. So, it's just really um a pleasure to be here and to get this grant to help fuel us so we can extend beyond St. Lucia, the region, do cultural exchanges, the world, you know, we just want to make the youth believe that it's not just in your school, you do theater arts, when you get your um CXs, you just go to the hotel industry, but you can bring it forth. You can be in grand productions and be seen and recognized for our little island. We little, but we talawa. Yeah. All right. So, um, yeah, just deep deep thanks for everything. I had a bunch of things to say, but short and sweet, thank you from my heart. [applause] As we come to a close, I would like to offer once more a special thank you to all the all the applicants of the creative grant fund. This press conference marks an important point in the process where applicants learn their statuses. The process continues as our creative officers connect with successful applicants daily. The Department of Creative Industries looks forward to your wonderful creations and your contribution to the island's creative sector. Can I get one more round of applause for yourselves for the Department of Creative Industries, the creative officer, Imran, we did a you've been doing a very good job. Um, in case you all don't know, that's Imran right there in the corner. Imran, just give him a little wave there. All right. And finally, last but not least, Miss Kim Denise Mondesy. She is the 2026 winner of Miss 50 plus pageant and she was sponsored by the creative the department of creative industries. Come on my left side. You must always be on the side of the hat. The event uh it's an annual fundraiser charity event in aid of the elderly at the Help Age St. Lucia National Council Home for the for the elderly. So Miss Miss Mondesy whenever you see her moving forward you shall call her Miss 50 plus. Round of applause. [applause] >> Yes. Yes. We would love to see the address. >> Um, good morning ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Help Age Council for the Elderly, it was a fundraising event which was well attended by many communities and I [snorts] want to thank them for letting my community well Gile and the creative arts. I reached out to them because I am rooted in culture in my community and I felt that the true nature of the warped duet should be featured at the pageant. So therefore my dress is a twoin one. So with no further ado on if you were not there on the evening the dress was actually flipped to show the madress on the flip side. So yes, so with a few innovative ideas with Miss Lisa Bonet Voli, I thought that it would be a talent to present it that way. So what we did was the jeep was brought up all the way to the top as a corset and then I flipped the entire dress on the evening. So within a few minutes I will remove my sash evening. >> [applause] >> So they [applause] so it does come with a traditional tech cass as you know you can make it with one material the madress or the floral interior. However, since I've grown, this is my tech cafe today. Thank you. And thank you TO [applause] Thank you very much. Um I don't know who entered her into a 50 plus competition. >> That doesn't sound right at all. Once again, thank you so very much for uh coming today. Um, all the best to all of you. I'll be looking forward to seeing your items on shelves and on the TV and all all sorts of places. Remember me. Okay. Okay. Now we feast. Thank you very much. Winners [music] never quit. I'm going to try [singing] until I get it in the end. with kids. [music and singing] I said on the plaza with grandma you never know your [music] uping [singing] [music] [singing] [music] the spirit with material [singing] and vex [music] them vex Surprise them, surprise. I survive. No one wants me. Never seen a guy when it was just me. The most high always with me [music] on the scene [singing] up on the plaza we man around the world we yeah up goodbye [music] [singing] [music] balancing the spirit [singing] with material. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. [music] Oh yeah. [music] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. [singing] [music] He get a youth suffer no more. Ra man not suffer no more. We [music] not suffer no more. Africa not suffer no more. I deliver [music] I [singing] say deliver. Oh deliver. I listen I see deliver [music] [singing] that's delivering [music] [music] never [singing] qu [singing and music] up up and away goodbye I >> [music] >> treat to my [singing] I stop That's why [music]