Migration has occurred throughout history but has become an increasingly important part of our lives in the 21st century. People are more frequently on the move both for positive reasons (holidays, education and work) and for negative reasons (political oppression and hunger). The migrant has become everyone’s neighbour. Hence, migration is now a major national and inter- national political factor, an economic determinator and a cultural injection for many international and local processes of change.
Unfortunately concepts such as asylum and migration are associated more and more with conflict, terrorism and danger. However, the Prince Claus Fund argues that migration also has positive consequences: new cultural encounters,
and a greater cultural diversity and fusion in the areas of music, dance and literature. In 2004 the Fund pursued the positive results of asylum and migration, and this theme served as the starting point for the research and development of the 2004 Prince Claus Awards. On 1 December a migrant
par excellence, the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, was presented with the Principal Prince Claus Award of €100,000 at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.
The Prince Claus Fund’s policy is guided by four main themes: Zones of Silence
(the locating and opening of areas of cultural silence), Creating Spaces of Freedom (the creation of cultural sanctuaries), Living Together (the art of co-existence) and Beauty in Context (the analysis of beauty in different cultural environments). The Fund also works with a series of sub-themes. The 2004 theme, The Positive Results of Asylum and Migration, is a part of
the Living Together theme: how can people with diverse origins co-exist in an enjoyable way and what does this mean for those who stay behind in the home country? What do migrants contribute to their new environment and what do they learn from it? All these questions were discussed during various debates and other activities that were held to mark the awards presentation in December.
The Sahel Opera is based on an idea by Prince Claus; its development was continued over the course of 2004. The Fund scouted composers from the Sahel region, who would be able to imbue the Sahel Opera with form. The jury, under the chairmanship of the Prince Claus laureate Professor Kwabena Nketia (a musicologist from Ghana), met in Paris in November and selected six composers, each of whom was commissioned to write a 15-minute piece of music. Four of them were then asked to transform their concepts into small productions at a series of workshops in Senegal.
In 2004 the Fund supported more than 140 activities in Africa, Asia, Latin
America and the Caribbean.
The Fund embarked on a three-year, collaborative network relationship with both the Bolivian music and theatre organisation APAC and DRIK, a centre for media and audio-visual art in Bangladesh. The Fund worked in the Netherlands with the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, the NCDO, the International Film Festival, the Mondriaan Foundation, BAK (Basis voor Actuele Kunst), ISIM (the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World) and the DOEN Foundation.
In 2004 the Prince Claus Fund had a total budget of € 4,113,437 at its disposal. This income consisted of the contribution of the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs (€ 3,403,352), the contribution of the National Postal Code Lottery (€ 500,000), the joint funding of a number of projects that amounted to € 121,323, the sponsoring of the awards presentation (€ 53,055) and an additional € 35,707, which was accumulated through interest and other revenue.
