Concerns over arts funding and the future of Bocas Lit Fest ^{CEFR B1}

Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and board president of the Bocas Lit Fest, linked recent funding changes to a larger problem in how Trinidad and Tobago values culture. She points to two episodes: the National Gas Company reduced funding for steel orchestras in fenceline communities and failed to secure the Banyan video archive, which Barbados later bought. These actions, she argues, show a lack of long-term commitment to cultural assets.

Salandy-Brown notes that Carnival and pan receive much attention and funding, while many other cultural areas struggle. Film festivals such as the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and others depend heavily on private support. NGC was title sponsor of Bocas from 2012 to 2023; those cycles allowed planning and growth. In 2024 NGC funded the festival only partially and in 2025 it did not contribute. The 2025 festival relied on foreign programming partners, in‑kind help and smaller sponsors.

Bocas spends over 10 percent of its revenue on compulsory administrative costs and the state contribution makes up less than three percent of its operating budget. The government promised an annual subvention for 2025 but has not remitted it; that money had been spent in April. Salandy-Brown also criticises the NLCB process, the full VAT on non‑academic books and Customs and Excise’s difficulty defining those books. She calls for a jointly funded Arts Council created by an Act of Parliament with an index‑linked budget and rules to prevent nepotism.