UNESCO and Cuban institutions forge synergies to develop the Transcultura Programme Regional Cultural Training Hub
Representatives of Cuban cultural and educational institutions and the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean established the Coordinating Committee of the Cuban institutions in the Regional Cultural Training Hub of the Programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity.
Funded by the European Union and implemented by UNESCO, Transcultura is a four-year programme that counts with the decisive participation of Cuban and Caribbean cultural and academic institutions. Based on providing opportunities and building capacities in the field of cultural and creative industries, Transcultura will benefit youths from 17 countries in the Caribbean, Member States of the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
For this reason, UNESCO and Cuban and Caribbean institutions are forming alliances that will make it possible to offer innovative and quality educational options to young people from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Monserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. This integration of synergies among diverse Cuban and Caribbean entities is precisely what constitutes Transcultura’s Regional Cultural Training Hub.
The Programme will make available to young women and men from beneficiary countries access and mobility grants for short-term courses offered by the University of the Arts (ISA), the Higher Institute of Design, the San Gerónimo College, the Santa Clara College for training in Restoration Arts and Crafts in Cuba and the Caribbean, the Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos Trade School, the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños, and the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets, in the case of Cuban institutions.
In the case of Caribbean institutions, the inclusion of courses from the prestigious University of the West Indies is being coordinated. The Programme is also working to identify courses offered by other Caribbean institutions.
The recently established Coordinating Committee of Cuban institutions, together with an Inter-institutional Academic Team and other working groups formed by representatives of UNESCO, the institutions and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cuba, will work hand in hand, and in alliance with Caribbean institutions, to offer options for improvement that will contribute to deepen integration between Cuba and the Caribbean through education and culture.