Organizations join forces to aid Puerto Rico’s creative professionals
Gener8tor, MECA International Art Fair (MECA), the Museum of Art and Design of Miramar (MADMi), and LA-X announced the availability of an Emergency Response Program for Puerto Rico’s creative professionals, consisting of a one-week virtual agenda designed to help artists, musicians, designers and other creative professionals identify, understand and secure resources to withstand the crisis caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“Artists are at the core of our cultural life and they need our support now more than ever,” said María Frederique, director of brand strategy and finance for MECA. “We’re thrilled to be working with gener8tor and MADMi to bring forward a hands-on platform of information and access to resources that can help Puerto Rico’s visual artists, musicians and creatives, many of whom are small business owners or freelancers whose production and sources of income have dried up because of this global pandemic, manage this crisis.”
This free program, offered through a collaboration between gener8tor, MECA, MADMi and LA-X, is an extension of the emergency response programming currently offered in Puerto Rico for small businesses and startups through a partnership between the organizations and other donors in the community.
“We welcome this opportunity to build upon our organization’s commitment to support artists and designers in advancing their careers,” said Nicole Pietri, director of MADMi.
“While we cannot, for the time being, provide a physical space to showcase their work, we can certainly contribute to initiatives such as this one, that bring the creative community closer to the knowledge and resources that can help them sustain their practice during this global crisis, while we look forward to welcoming them back to our space as soon as possible,” she said.
The virtual program is scheduled for May 5-10. Ahead of the program, the partner organizations will host an open virtual informative session to introduce the initiative and provide urgent information on unemployment resources, they said.
The virtual open informative session will take place May 1 at 12 p.m. and will be accessible by registering HERE.
As part of the program, participants will be invited to lunchtime webinars presented by experts in the following topics:
- Step-by-step process of determining eligibility and applying for financial support from various sources;
- Mental health and wellness;
- COVID-19 and health insurance;
- Boosting your online presence, and
- Virtual open houses and listening sessions.
In addition to the webinars, the program participants will have access to dedicated, daily one-on-one consultations with members of the gener8tor, MECA and MADMi teams. Recognizing that each creative professional is dealing with different struggles due to the crisis, the goal of these calls is to help address their specific needs individually.
“All of us at LA-X are proud to take part in a program that is providing opportunities and tools to visual artists, musicians and creatives in general in this time of COVID-19 crisis,” said Herman Dávila, vice president of programming at LA-X.
Creatives wishing to sign-up for the informative session on May 1 and/or enroll in the Emergency Response Program are requested to click HERE. The deadline for registration is, May 4.
There will be a limited number of one-on-one consultations, which will be made available to individuals who register for the webinars on a first-come, first-served basis. Webinars will run Tuesday through Friday and last 90 minutes each.
