Call for nominations for 2012 Sabga Awards

The nomination period for the Anthony N Sabga Caribbean Awards for Excellence 2012 Awards closes on Thursday. Nominations are invited in the areas of Arts and Letters, Public and Civic Contributions, Science and Technology. Nominations may come from persons or institutions, and people may nominate themselves on a prescribed form, which is available for downloading at www.ansacaribbeanawards.com. The Awards programme is the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean. A privately-funded initiative of the ANSA McAL Foundation in Trinidad and Tobago, it seeks out and rewards Caribbean achievement in the crucial areas of art, science, and public works. The prizes are worth TT$500,000 each.

Local committees in five territories (Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Trinidad and Tobago) comprised of academics, professionals, and other highly regarded persons, are mandated to nominate outstanding artists, scientists, and civic activists of Caribbean origin. These nominations are then pooled with nominations received from the public. Nominees are not restricted to persons residing in the Caribbean, but their work must be of direct relevance to the Caribbean people, the region, and its pressing issues. This is not to say, however, that the work should not be comparable to the best work globally.

Final selections of the laureates are made by a panel of regional eminent persons who are prominent in the fields of public service, law, finance, and the sciences. The Awards programme has been in existence since 2005, and has presented four sets of awards to 13 laureates from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, and Trinidad and Tobago. Among the laureates are medical scientists, a film-maker, novelist and critic, archaeologist and musicologist, conservationists, and Indigenous people’s activists.

They were initially conceived as biennial, but as of 2011 the Caribbean Awards are now being bestowed annually. The Awards website also contains a link to a downloadable nominations booklet which answers all relevant questions. The Caribbean Awards also hosts a Facebook page and a YouTube channel which contains a video introduction to the Awards, an abridged version of the 2011 Awards Ceremony, and video biographies and interviews with laureates. Queries may be sent to anscafe@ansamcal.com.