Cultural workers to benefit from work permit and visa discussions

Cultural workers are expected to benefit from discussions among the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, the Foreign and Caricom Affairs ministry and the US Embassy.

The discussion about access to work permits and visas happened on Wednesday.

A media release on Thursday said cultural workers negatively affected by the covid19 pandemic and who wish to travel abroad for work were the subject of discussions between the ministries, the US Embassy’s Charge d’Affaires Shante Moore and representatives of the TT Promoters Association (TTPA).

It said the Tourism, Culture and Arts ministry continued to advocate on behalf of cultural workers to smoothen the process of application for work visas and address any challenges related to their ability to travel abroad for work related to the promotion of TT’s culture in the US.

“Cultural workers who represent TT at various events and festivals must apply for a special visa that gives them the ability to lawfully work temporarily within the US.

“One of the main challenges faced by the cultural sector is the closure of the US Embassy in TT due to the covid19 pandemic which effectively ceased in-person interviews at the embassy.”

The release said Moore underscored his Government’s support for TT’s cultural sector and gave the undertaking that issues raised by the TTPA through the ministry will be reviewed by the embassy’s consular section.

Tourism, Culture and the Arts minister Randall Mitchell said in the release the meeting was necessary as it seeks to ease barriers to earning income abroad as the sector seeks to recover from the pandemic.

“Both the United States Government and the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs are key stakeholders in this process and all parties are on board with ensuring that the creative sector returns to some sense of normalcy.”

This meeting follows on the heels of a recently implemented programme by the ministry to facilitate access to vaccinations and return travel exemptions for cultural workers to enable them to accept bookings and engagements internationally at festivals and events.

TTPA president Jerome “Rome” Precilla said in a phone interview he did not know of the exact number of artistes who have taken advantage of the exemptions, but he knew a lot of them left and are already abroad for engagements.

Patrice Roberts, Farmer Nappy, Iwer, Nailah Blackman and Blaxx are among the artistes who were currently abroad, he said.

“There are some others that are heading out as well including the chutney soca artistes…”

He said there were currently many events happening in the US and, while he did not know the names of each event, artistes were preparing for events such as Labour Day weekend in New York and Miami carnival which is scheduled to take place in October.

Rome said over 150 cultural workers including pannists, dancers and theatre practitioners took advantage of the ministry’s vaccination drive and there is another list of over 100 to be vaccinated in the second batch.

These include artistes in the “Zesser” movement.

Rome said the association was happy cultural workers were getting the opportunity to earn again.