Goa State Cultural Award

What is the Goa State Cultural Award?

Goa State Cultural Award is the lifetime achievement honour of the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, notified under DAC/COMPCELL/10-SCHEME/2015-16/7594 dated 27 November 2015, which repealed the earlier notification. The award, sometimes referred to locally as the Goa Rajya Sanskrutik Puraskar, was designed to honour the eminent personalities in the field of art and culture and to give recognition to Goan artists par excellence for their lifetime achievement and extraordinary contribution to the field in Goa.

The scheme's own stated objectives are three:

1. To honour the eminent personalities in the field of art and culture.
2. To felicitate the artists par excellence for their lifetime achievements.
3. To recognise and appreciate artists par excellence as State Artist of Goa.

The award is deliberately built around age and duration rather than a single achievement. It goes to someone who has spent a career in the field in Goa, not to a performer who has had one exceptional year.

What the awardee receives

• Financial purse of Rs 1,00,000 per individual.
• Monthly financial assistance of Rs 3,200 under the Kala Samman scheme.
• Memento, shawl, sriphal and certificate of appreciation, presented at a formal felicitation programme.
• Public recognition as a State Artist of Goa.

Who is eligible for the Goa State Cultural Award?

An artist can be considered if:

• The artist is an individual artist, not an institution.
• The artist has completed 60 years of age.
• The artist has made an extraordinary contribution to the field of art and culture at large, and specifically within his or her own field of art.
• The artist has contributed in that field of art in Goa for a minimum of 10 years out of the entire career as a practising artist.

An artist cannot be considered, or is not eligible, if:

• The artist has already received the Goa State Cultural Award once. The notification states that no person shall be eligible a second time.
• The artist is below 60 years of age on the date of consideration.
• The nomination is a self-recommendation from the artist. The Directorate expressly does not accept these.
• The artist or a supporter engages in canvassing or solicitation, which leads to disqualification of the application.
• The artist has died before being recommended; no award is presented posthumously, except where the death occurs after the committee has already recommended the name, in which case the Task Force Committee may allow a posthumous presentation.
• The nomination is for an institution, which belongs under the separate Best Cultural Institution Award.

In which fields is the award given?

Every year a maximum of 12 persons are considered, across ten notified fields:

The notification adds an important safeguard: if no eligible candidate is found in a particular category in a particular year, no award is given in that category that year. The Directorate does not fill the quota for its own sake.

The 2016-17 list illustrates the spread, awards went to artists in Indian and Western music, three in literature, drama, two in tiatr, kirtan, bhajan, folk art and fine art, drawn from Priol, Utorda, Tarvalem, Caranzalem, Panaji, Corlim, Sangolda, Chinchinnim, Mulgao, Old Goa, Nagargaon and Moira.

How does the recommendation process work?

Goa State Cultural Award is a recommendation-driven award, and understanding that is the difference between a nomination that is considered and one that is thrown out.

Every year the Department of Art and Culture releases a press advertisement inviting recommendations of names from eminent institutions and individuals working in the field of art and culture. The Department may also write directly to institutions and individuals asking them to suggest names. Separately, the committee constituted for the scheme may take suo motu cognizance of an artist with a lifetime contribution and consider that name on its own.

The selection committee is itself made up of past recipients of the Goa State Cultural Award. The committee meets as and when required, considers both the recommendations received and the names it takes up on its own, makes a category-wise selection, and submits its recommendations to the Director of Art and Culture. The term of one committee is three years.

How to apply for or recommend someone for the Goa State Cultural Award

1. Watch for the annual press advertisement issued by the Directorate of Art and Culture in the local newspapers, which opens the recommendation window.
2. Obtain the prescribed proforma; either print it from the Directorate's website or collect a hard copy from the Directorate of Art and Culture, 5th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403001.
3. Fill in all mandatory fields, paste the artist's passport-size photograph and sign it across, and set out the artist's field, age, years of work in Goa and record of contribution.
4. Attach self-attested copies of all supporting documents: proof of age, proof of years of work in Goa, biodata and evidence of artistic contribution, and bank account details.
5. Submit the completed recommendation within 30 days of the newspaper advertisement to the ACO-III, Directorate of Art and Culture, phone 0832-2404606, email aco6-dac.goa@nic.in, and keep a copy of what was filed.

What happens after the recommendation is submitted?

The committee of past awardees scrutinises the recommendations category by category and sends its selections to the Director of Art and Culture. The list of awardees is announced within six months from the last date of submission.

Once the selection is over, the Director of Art and Culture obtains the acceptance of the artist to receive the award. Only after that acceptance is the artist honoured at a felicitation programme organised by the Department of Art and Culture, with the approval of the Government, where the shawl, sriphal, memento, certificate of appreciation and the Rs 1,00,000 purse are presented. An eminent personality of national or international repute in art, culture or literature is invited for the presentation function. The award is presented on or before 30 April.

What are the conditions on the Rs 3,200 monthly assistance?

Two conditions in the notification decide whether the monthly Kala Samman assistance is actually payable:

• No assistance is paid to a dependant after the death of the artist. The Rs 3,200 stops with the awardee and does not pass to family.
• An awardee already availing a pension under any State or Central Government scheme is not eligible for the pension under Kala Samman. The one-time Rs 1,00,000 purse is not affected by this bar.

Why a recommendation may not succeed

• Self-nomination — the single most common reason a file is set aside.
• Canvassing or solicitation on behalf of the artist, which the scheme treats as a disqualification rather than a minor irregularity.
• Age below 60 on the date of consideration.
• Fewer than 10 years of work in the field in Goa, which the biodata must demonstrate.
• Repeat nomination of an artist who has already received the award.
• Filing after the 30-day window from the newspaper advertisement.
• No suitable candidate in the category that year, in which case no award is given in that field at all.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Art and Culture, 5th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403001 to phone 0832-2404600.
• ACO-III, Directorate of Art and Culture, phone 0832-2404606, email aco6-dac.goa@nic.in, for the proforma, the current year's advertisement and the status of a recommendation.
• Grievances: if any grievance arises out of the implementation of this scheme, the Minister for Art and Culture hears and decides the matter, and the Minister's decision is final under the notification.

Artists and institutions should also look at the related honours run by the same Directorate. The Gomant Vibhushan Award with a Rs 5,00,000 purse, the State Reward to the Recipient of National and International Awards with a Rs 1,00,000 purse, the Kala Gaurav Puraskar, the Yuva Srujan Puraskar and the Best Cultural Institution Award.

How to check your recommendation status

The Goa State Cultural Award has no online portal, tracking number or login where a nominator can check status. The recommendation is a paper file lodged with the Directorate of Art and Culture, so following it up is a direct, offline process.

• Keep your own proof of submission. When the completed proforma and supporting documents are handed in at the Directorate of Art and Culture, 5th Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto, Panaji, ask for an acknowledgement or a dated receiving stamp on your copy. This is the only record you will have that the recommendation was filed within the 30-day window.
• Call or email ACO-III for an update. The office handling this scheme is ACO-III, Directorate of Art and Culture, phone 0832-2404606, email aco6-dac.goa@nic.in. Quote the artist's name, the field of art and the date the recommendation was submitted when you call.
• Use the six-month benchmark. The notification states that the list of awardees is announced within six months from the last date of submission for that year. If that period has passed with no announcement and no response from ACO-III, a follow-up call or a written reminder to the same office is reasonable.
• Watch for the public announcement, not a private confirmation. The Directorate does not notify each nominator individually about the outcome. Selected names are announced by the Department and, once selected, the Director of Art and Culture separately contacts the artist to obtain their acceptance before the felicitation function. A nominator who wants to know the result should watch for this public announcement rather than expect a letter.
• For a stalled or unanswered file, the general Directorate of Art and Culture line, 0832-2404600, can be used to reach a different desk if ACO-III does not respond, and any unresolved grievance about how the scheme was implemented for a particular case can be raised with the Minister for Art and Culture, whose decision under the notification is final.