Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday evening that incentives for businesses that financially support modern cultural creation and cultural actions would be announced soon, adding that a Registry of Artists to safeguard their labour rights would also be implemented. Culture, he stressed, “becomes everyone’s business”. President Christodoulides was speaking during the Theatre Awards for 2022 organised by the Cyprus Theatre Organisation (THOK). Culture, he pointed out, “is everyone’s business”, something which is apparent throughout his administration programme, which he sees as “our contract with the Cypriot people.” Addressing the artists who were present, he said that Culture for the government, “is not a hobby and we are very well aware that all of you who serve it are professionals” and that is why the government, he noted, includes the Culture sector as an economic activity in its overall strategic planning. “That is why we wish, in cooperation with you and making the most of the work done by the former Deputy Minister of Culture, to soon regulate the professional status of artists, to immediately implement the establishment of a Registry of Artists, so that labour rights are fully guaranteed,” he noted. He referred also to the creation of a digital Culture Card for young people adding that people who have reached the age of 18, will be able to attend cultural events and visit places of culture. Noting that culture “becomes everyone’s business”, including the country’s businesses, he said that incentives, tax and other, will be announced soon for businesses that financially support modern cultural creation and culture actions in the country. “We want, and we consider that we have the infrastructure in our country, to highlight Cyprus as a hub of culture, making use of the excellent relations with neighbouring states, with the aim of promoting, through artistic creation, modern Cyprus and creating markets for the products of the Cypriot cultural industry,” he said. He congratulated the awardees Maria Mannaridou-Karsera, Eduardo Georgiou and Andreas Koutsoftas and spoke of their ethos. He told the artists and members of THOK, that they will often see him at their performances applauding their work, but also by their side, “to build together the long-term strategy of Cyprus for culture in our homeland”. In her address, THOK Board of Directors President, Antigoni Papafilippou, expressed, among other things, THOK’s support of the newly established Deputy Ministry of Culture in implementing the government’s cultural policy. She also said that THOK, as the main theater organisation of the country, will continue, through its diverse and complex activities, to enrich the cultural map of the country, promote humanitarian and aesthetic education and the recognise and award creators.
Source: Cyprus News Agency