8.1.3 Grants, awards, scholarships
A. Supporting Theatre Groups
The government authority in charge of culture allocates appropriations to Moroccan theatrical groups and institutions to support production and promotion.
The Conditions for Granting Support: Support is granted to each theatrical group or institution that possesses elements of modernity and professional quality, assuming that:
Residencies in the Paris City of Arts
Nominations are open for Moroccan artists to reside in the City of Arts in Paris. Since 1993, the MoC has provided four workshops under the Hassan II Foundation for Fine Arts. The City of Arts in Paris has since its initiation in 1965 received artists from various countries, providing them with space to settle, meet, work, and study.
Length of stay: The residency program—supervised by the MoC and the cultural attaché of the French Embassy in Rabat—targets the professional Moroccan artists, authors, and script-writers to benefit from a three- to nine month residency. The selection committee withholds the right to determine length of stay, depending on the nature of the candidate’s project.
Artistic specialisations: Fine art (dyeing, sculpture, artistic carving), photography, video, design, cinema, music, dance, literature (fiction, poetry, scriptwriting).
Residency requirements:
Support Policy of the Ministry of Culture
1. Supporting Reading and Publishing:
To alleviate some of the financial burden placed on Moroccan publishing houses, in 2002 the MoC began covering 50% of printing costs and reducing selling prices by the same percentage.
This support, organised by Decree No. 2.00.354 (1 November, 2000), included granting theatre and writing subsidies. Applied decision No. 1224-02 (31 July, 2002) determined the mechanism for granting subsidies to support book publication. Around 132 printings (110 books and 22 magazines of up to 56 issues) were approved by a specialised reading commission between 1999 and 2002. MoC financial support reached MD 2.9 million, which went to the publication programs of 31 enterprises and institutions.
The MoC also continues to purchase 100 copies of each Moroccan book to stock public libraries.
The Ministry makes every effort to support publication projects addressing the most prominent features of Moroccan society, and informs readers and researchers interested in their own identity and history. MD 657,000 was given to support the release of six volumes (Volumes 11-16). These volumes included The Landmarks of Morocco, supervised by the Moroccan Association for Editing, Translation and Publishing. MD 350,000 was given to an eight-part book (both hardcover and paperback) entitled An Investigation into the Far West by Al-Nasseri.
According to statistics, the public reading network in Morocco consists of 375 collections distributed among different actors, with a capacity of about 12,500 seats and about 1,000,000 documents.
Moreover, reading convoys contribute to supporting youth interest in reading in remote villages and the countryside. The Ministry has set aside 320,000 dirhams in the 2012 budget for updating the documentary inventory of these five convoys, while local groups are responsible for the cost of fuel and compensating these convoys in accordance with agreements.
As of 2013, a new perspective will be developed for cultural and technical support in general, and for cultural and artistic events in particular, prepared by the Ministry of Culture which was approved by decree No. 2.12.513 passed on 13 May, 2013.
Authorised by Ministry in 2013, and through a mixed committee it has been informed of 345 files submitted for the sake of obtaining support to disseminate publications and leaflets. The Committee approved 178 files with an amount estimated at 3.182.000 dirham, these projects focus on following domains:
The authorised Ministry is ambitious, through the 2014 budget, it extended the general reading network by allocating funding increases to 18.5 million dirham, by developing public pooled funds, in the framework of partnership, including mediating reservoirs in the city of Tangier in the framework of the Large Tangier Project. This was alongside the rehabilitation and equipping of 8 public reservoirs in Tamara, Arford, Tangier, Shafshawn, and another 4 treasuries in Saragneh Castle, Shishawa, Benkrir and al-Sanawbara.
Book Awards:
Morocco organises several prizes for books:
The Grand Award of Merit
Initiated by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1986, it honours the people of Morocco for their cultural, scientific and creative productions, as well as their services to Moroccan culture.
Moroccan Book Prize
The Morocco Book Prize, initiated by decree no. 2.74.564 (4 September, 1974), includes the following categories:
The Morocco Prize for Literature and Arts
The Morocco Prize for Science
The Morocco Prize for Translation
The MoC selects the Morocco Book Prize committee every year, as well as members of specialised sub-committees for the different categories of the prize. The prize is considered the most prestigious in the field of Moroccan culture and literature.
Sub-committee members are selected on the basis of their scientific, literary and artistic qualifications, depending on the category over which they adjudicate.
Prize winners receive:
On 10 September, 2008, the Ministers of Culture and Finance signed a decree amending the prize’s regulations. The award was raised to MD 120,000, and new awards were created for poetry and narrative, and special amendments were passed regarding jury composition.
The government council on 8 November, 2012, approved a draft decree to further develop the Morocco Book Award. This draft intends to develop the award in a way that ensures that it achieves the success and promotion it deserves, as a significant cultural moment that constitutes a date on which cultural circles can celebrate. It is also an occasion to honour Moroccan writers and acknowledge their efforts and sacrifice.
The amendments also deal with proposed languages of classification, primarily the Arabic and Amazigh languages, along with the Hassaniyah dialect. It designates two prizes for both the humanities and the social sciences, as a result of the many fields covered by these sciences.
The draft also deals with storing the work of Moroccan writers published abroad into the Kingdom of Morocco's national library, and increases the number of committees for the Morocco Book Award from five to six, as well as providing for flexibility in the date the award is given.
Hassan II Prize for Manuscripts and Documents
This annual award:
The total prize value is estimated at MD 111,000.
Argana International Prize for Poetry
Granted by the House of Poetry, in partnership with the Moroccan Deposit and Management Fund. Previously, the prize has been won by foreign, Arab, and Moroccan poets, including Mahmoud Darwish, Saadi Youssef, and Tahar Ben Jelloun.
2. The Project to Support Moroccan Music
Beginning on 8 January, 2009, the Moroccan government moved to grant financial aid to Moroccan musicians. A committee was established to review support requests. Each year, about fifteen projects benefit from nearly MD 300,000 support. The committee is comprised of poets, composers, singers, distributors, critics, and representatives of artist unions. In 2012, the committee used a MD 4.5 million budget to support 15 projects from 32 nominations received.
Except that decree for supporting song will be, in turn, subject to modification within a larger perspective for cultural and technical support in general, and for cultural and artistic events in particular, prepared by the Ministry of Culture and approved by draft Decree No. 2.12.513, passed in May 2013.
In 2013, the Ministry of Culture, received 135 files to support projects in the domain of music, and choreographic performing arts, whereas 25 files were approved with an amount rising to 3,713,360 Dirham, these projects are distributed according to the following fields:
Choreographic Performing Arts
It is worth noting, that in 2014 the Ministry launched a project for rehabilitation of conservatories by developing an agenda for distribution and arrangement of those affiliated with the Ministry, so as to complete construction work of the National Higher Institute for Music and Choreographic Arts in Rabat. This was alongside establishing conservatories at a regional level as referential institutes after all others are subject to comprehensive rehabilitation.
3. Support of Fine Arts
As for supporting cultural and technical projects for visual and the fine arts sector in 2014, 94 files were reviewed of which 24 files have gained approval with an estimated amount of 2,362,000 Dirham, these projects are concerned with:
It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Culture, outside the field of project support, allocated in 2013 around 2,000,000 Dirham for organising exhibitions of fine arts in various affiliated galleries and fairs.
Theatre Support Sector:
A specialist committee examined 65 technical and cultural project files specific to the theatre sector, in 2013, and approved31 projects with an estimated amount of 1,810,000 Dirham. These projects are concerned with the following fields: