Emergency fund launched to support creative industries

AMMAN — As many cultural operators in Jordan are grappling with extraordinary financial pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, EUNIC Jordan, with financial support of the European Union in Jordan, has created an emergency fund and is launching a call for proposals for operators and organisations registered in the country to submit projects to promote and enhance creative industries in 2020.

“Cultural operators play an essential role in Jordanian society, as has been demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 period,” said EU Ambassador to Jordan, Maria Hadjitheodosiou in a EUNIC statement. 

“We have witnessed how people’s quality of life relied on the creative industries to help them manage through curfew periods or quarantine. Jordanians have sought out cultural goods like books, newspapers and magazines, film and television productions, digital media, recorded music, and diverse kinds of virtual access to the visual and performing arts,” she said.

The main objectives of this call are: Supporting organisations whose cash flow and short-term operational viability have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, encouraging the economic sustainability of creative industries in Jordan, and promoting artistic contemporary creation and innovation, the statement said.

EUNIC Jordan and the European Union will provide aid to the projects selected on a competitive basis either through co-financing or full support. 

The call is looking for small- and medium-​sized enterprises and civil society organisations with valid registration/legal status in Jordan working in the fields of culture and creative industries, the statement said.

Projects should target performing arts, including music, dance, theatre and puppetry; visual arts, including graphic design, painting, sculpture, drawing and cartoon; audio-visual arts, including animation, cinema, TV, radio and online production; design, including fashion design, product design, interior design, material innovation, handicraft; and artisanship and app-development related to the creative fields.

 Deadline for submission is August 30.