Promotion of free creation in culture through “Ecuador, Territory of Arts and Creativity” project

This  policy  represents  the  most  relevant  public  support  platform  for  the  development and financing of artistic and cultural projects since 2008, at national level. We have worked in two fundamental lines: 1) Festivals and 2) financial support. Through this project, artists, managers and cultural promoters have been granted access to public resources in order to support and develop their initiatives (Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2016).

In different annual calls, the methodology and strategy of project selection aims to an equitable distribution of resources in all provinces of the country, as well as the establishment of a transparent and technical evaluation procedure developed by juries, which are external to the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2016).

Within the last four years, the amount invested in both modalities was USD 6,649,006.67. The 2016 call,  which is  currently in  awarding winners stage, had  an  allocated amount of  USD 1,000,000.00 for funding and USD 920,000.00 for festivals.

This last edition had the highest amount of investment allocated, due to the incentive given to cultural producers of the provinces affected by the earthquake of April 2016 on the Ecuadorian coast (Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2016).

Also, the 2016 call privileged the nomination "of interculturalism festivals”, proposed by representatives of different nationalities, indigenous peoples, Afro - descendants, montubios, urban / rural cultures and LGBTI groups, and opened the possibility to applications coming for people with disabilities. In these categories, a total of 75 projects were presented (For more information on funds and festivals refer to Annex 2) (Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2016).