(Seychelles News Agency) - The Seychelles’ National Arts Council is re-launching the arts award for the first time in 13 years.

The award is not a competition but is held to recognise the contribution of local artists to different forms of art.

All entries for the award must be submitted to the committee not later than noon on Wednesday October 25. Apart from artists entering for the awards, associations are also encouraged to make their nominations.

The chief executive of the council, Jimmy Savy, said that it was the artists themselves who asked the council to reintroduce the awards. 

“We made lots of preparation behind the scene before we decided to launch the award. One of our challenging task was to set up the selective committee, which will have to choose the recipients.”

Awardees will then have the chance to participate in different international events which the council will attend. (Joe Laurence, Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

Savy said the award launched officially last week, will show appreciation for people involved in the art world. 

“We want everyone to be clear on what we are doing. We want to show sculptors, producers and directors, visual artists, musicians, singers, songwriters, dancers amongst others that we value their contributions.”

“This is not a contest,” he added. “We cannot compare Egbert Marday who is a sculptor to  musician Patrick Victor or to poet Raspyek, rather we are recognising, appreciating and giving due value to the contributions that these people and many others are making in the development of the arts in Seychelles.”

The selective committee is chaired by Patrick Pillay, the speaker of the National Assembly and an ex-minister for culture. Pillay said that the group has had to come up with different criteria to be used to choose the recipients of the awards.

The Arts Award is not a contest, it will rather recognise, appreciate and give due value to the contributions that these people and many others are making in the development of the arts in Seychelles. (Salifa Magnan, Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: CC-BY

“All artists will be made aware of all criteria we will be using so that they know what we are looking for in each category. So that when they do send us their profiles, they will know exactly what to submit.”

Artists of the island nation, in the western Indian Ocean, will then have to wait for one month before the around 15 trophies are presented. Awardees will then have the chance to participate in different international events which the council will attend. 

The arts awards will be held next month, on November 25^th . It is expected to take place every two years.