WILLEMSTAD - The Council of Minister in its meeting of 7 October agreed to appoint 10 members to the Curaçao Cultural Advisory Council (Konseho Kultural Kòrsou). The objective of this Cultural Advisory Council is to advise the Government in the broad field of culture in Curaçao. As professionals in the field, they will contribute as a broad cultural platform that maintains contact with representatives of the different cultural disciplines in the field.

On October 8, 2020, the new Council was officially established by the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (OWCS), Premier Eugene Ruggenaath. The appointed members of the Konseho Kultural Kòrsou are: Ir. Michael A. Newton (Chairman), Roland (Roy) Colastica, Prof. Dr. Ashley Duits, Sharelly Emanuelson MA Artistic Research, Drs. Hereswit Verele Engels, Mr. Karel Frielink, Drs. Shulaika (Su) Girigorie, Drs. Carel de Haseth, Andrey Pichardo MBA and Raygen Zuiverloon.

The Curaçao Cultural Advisory Council was established in 1968 by the then Executive Council. In 1977 the name was changed to Konseho Kultural Kòrsou. Although advice has been issued in the past in the field of culture, the Board has mainly concerned itself with the task of preparing an annual nomination for the prestigious Cola Debrot Prize, the culture prize of the Curaçao government.

In order to contribute to a more structural cultural policy, the Konseho Kultural Kòrsou made a proposal to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport a few years ago to expand the tasks of the council. In this way, the latter can provide solicited and unsolicited independent advice to the Minister in the broad field of culture in Curaçao. The Government agreed to this request in 2019.