Award Categories

Arts & Letters

This category includes the visual arts, the performing arts, the works of composers, writers and poets, and those whose work makes it possible for art to be created.

Visual & Plastic Arts include painting, photography, drawing, film, fashion, graphic arts, illustration, architectural design, sculpture and related fields.Suitable candidates are those who create original artworks that are primarily visual in nature and typically exist in permanent form. Plastic arts are those visual arts that involve the use of materials that can be carved, shaped, moulded or modulated in some way, often in three dimensions. Examples of materials used in plastic arts are wood, concrete, steel, clay, metal, paint and plaster. The Plastic Arts include sculpture, architecture, ceramics, metalworking, woodwork, tailoring, fashion design, costume making and the textile arts.

Performing Arts considers performances which may be live, or transmitted via film or video. The performing arts include music, dance, drama, comedy, theatre, motion pictures, opera and related activities cross-genre activities, like performance art.

Letters include written and recorded work including biographies, fiction, non-fiction, history, poetry, plays, choreography, design and music compositions in all their various forms. Technical written and recorded work would be considered in the Science & Technology category.

Science & Technology

This category includes scientific research and experimental work in the natural, physical, mathematical, earth, life and biological sciences, as well as in applied science. Nominations are encouraged for achievement in any field of science that has resulted in significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or application or important technological achievements that have made contributions to the Caribbean society.

Physical Sciences include the science of non-living matter and energy and their interactions, including physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy and related fields.

Earth Science is sometimes considered a part of the physical sciences. It is any of the geologic sciences concerned with the origin, structure, and physical phenomena of the earth. Earth sciences include geology, paleontology, oceanography, meteorology and soil science.

Life Sciences include the fields of bioscience and includes all branches of the natural sciences dealing with the structure and behavior of living organisms. The category includes all the branches of biology such as botany, zoology, genetics, and medicine.

Technology & Applied Sciences include work that uses the outputs of science to create technology. This may include the practical application of science or scientific knowledge to commerce, industry and practical human and community problems, and encompasses industrial arts, engineering, agriculture and environmental sciences.

Public & Civic Contributions

This category includes those who work directly to improve their communities and the lives of Caribbean people. It includes those who have pioneered non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community based organizations that benefit community, country and region, and sustainably improve the quality of life.

This award recognises the efforts of persons who carry out service to the public or do work of a substantial nature.

Public contributions include recreation, youth activities, social welfare, educational services, cultural affairs, religious affairs, community affairs and any other area of service which contributes to the improvement of the Caribbean as a whole. Outstanding work done in the area of gender issues, domestic violence and drug and substance abuse rehabilitation, health, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection, employment creation, poverty alleviation, qualifies. The category is also open to those who have pioneered work in a people-centered organization like credit unions, trade unions, business and fraternal bodies that have positively affected people’s lives.

Civic contributions include service and outstanding contributions to the cause of good governance or civic improvement. It may be of a voluntary nature or beyond normal employment, benefiting the Caribbean and its people. Persons currently involved in the political process are usually not considered, unless their contribution is transcendent and truly significant.

Entrepreneurship

The category of Entrepreneurship was  introduced in 2015. The Caribbean Awards wishes to identify and encourage those who innovate, invent, and have the business savvy to bring new products, ideas, and social and cultural technologies to the public.

This category will be open to people who have invented a new product, a new technology, a new process, and have brought them to the wider public. The category will be judged by the standards of normal business: nominees will have to show data as to the extent and viability of their contributions.

However, the benefits and metrics will not be only financial, as we are mindful of the recent developments in economics which measure human, social, and cultural capital. Hence, the principal criteria would be the degree of transformation wrought by the innovator/innovation, and the success in diffusing it. (Comprehensive guidelines for this category are available on the home page.)