Institute of Culture scholarships and aid

It is the set of economic aids the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture’s organic act places in the Institute’s hands to reach people: a Scholarship Programme created by statute for studies in the plastic arts and allied artistic and humanistic disciplines, prizes in cash and in kind for those who contribute to conserving culture, and economic aid from the Institute’s own funds to private individuals and to entities. The Act creates the programmes and sets guidelines for them; the procedural detail is set by the Institute itself by regulation.

For the Scholarship Programme, the Act circumscribes awards to students in the plastic arts and other artistic and humanistic disciplines akin to the Institute’s purposes, and orders that the award be competitive on academic merit and equitable across study areas, without favouring specialities. Prizes reach citizens who contribute to conserving our culture. For economic aid, the Act expressly mentions other entities, institutions and programmes and private individuals, and separately, the assignment of funds and advice to private persons and entities in letters, music, plastic arts and stage-musical arts, including theatre, ballet and opera. The Act sets no age, minimum grade average, residence, study level or list of eligible institutions: those criteria are set by the Institute by regulation and do not come from this text.

• Scholarship awards are circumscribed to the plastic arts and other artistic and humanistic disciplines akin to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture’s purposes (Section 4(a)(12)(C)).Verified against the official source
• The award must be competitive on the basis of academic merit (Section 4(a)(12)(D)).Verified against the official source
• Scholarship distribution must be equitable within the artistic and humanistic study areas, tending to a balance that does not favour specialities (Section 4(a)(12)(A)).Verified against the official source
• The scholarship student must commit to being available to give one free activity, at the Institute’s option, within two years after finishing the studies for which the scholarship was received (Section 4(a)(12)(E)).Verified against the official source
• The assignment of funds and advice to private persons and entities in letters, music, plastic arts and stage-musical arts is made per the norms and criteria the Institute’s Board of Directors establishes (Section 4(a)(19)).Verified against the official source

• The application for economic aid that the Institute evaluates and processes under the norms and guidelines it establishes for that purpose (Section 4(a)(18)).

1. 1

   Step 1: What the Scholarship Programme is and where it came from

   Section 4(a)(12) empowers the Institute to establish and operate such scholarship systems as it deems necessary for the promotion of culture and the improvement of its personnel. And in that same clause the Act creates something concrete: “Provided, the creation of an ‘Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Scholarship Programme’ to which the functions, funds, property, personnel and archives of the graduate-studies scholarship programme operated by the Institute shall be transferred.” That is, it is not a programme the Institute may or may not have: the Act creates it and hands it the graduate scholarship programme that already existed. Its purpose, per the text, is to stimulate and facilitate students’ studies in the plastic arts and other artistic and humanistic disciplines akin to the Institute’s purposes.

2. 2

   Step 2: The five guidelines the Act imposes on the Programme

   These are guarantees written into the statute, not brochure promises. (A) The Programme shall review the award processes to guarantee an equitable distribution within the artistic and humanistic study areas, tending to a balance that does not favour specialities. (B) The proportion and award must represent the institutional interest in developing specific programmes, and the holders, once graduated, may be recruited and become a source of updating, study and research fostering the Institute’s internal development. (C) It shall avoid duplication with other existing programmes, circumscribing scholarships to the plastic arts and other allied artistic and humanistic disciplines. (D) It shall provide greater dissemination of the Programme to ensure optimal use of the economic resources and guarantee competitive award on the basis of academic merit. (E) It shall establish the norms for the counterpart obligation, explained in the next step.

3. 3

   Step 3: The counterpart: one free activity within two years

   Worth knowing before applying. Guideline (E) orders the Programme to establish the norms so that the student awarded a scholarship “commits to being available to give one free activity at the option of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture within two (2) years after finishing the studies for which they received a scholarship under this Programme.” Three details from the text: the activity is one, it is free, and the Institute chooses it (“at the Institute’s option”), not the holder. The term runs from the completion of studies, not from receiving the money. The Act does not say what happens if the holder does not comply, and we do not invent it.

4. 4

   Step 4: The prizes: cash, books, records and medals

   It is a route distinct from the scholarship and many people do not know it exists. Section 4(a)(14) empowers the Institute to grant and award prizes in cash, books, records, specially minted medals and other objects to those citizens who contribute to the conservation of our culture, as a way of stimulating artistic and literary creation, per the norms the Board of Directors authorises. The Act sets no amount, categories, calendar or nomination procedure: that is left to the Board’s norms.

5. 5

   Step 5: Economic aid to individuals and entities

   Section 4(a)(18) orders the Institute to establish the norms and guidelines needed to evaluate and process the applications for economic aid it may provide from its own funds for the benefit of the arts and humanities to other entities, institutions and programmes and private individuals. Note what matters: the aid comes from the Institute’s own funds and does reach private individuals, not only organisations. Section 4(a)(19) adds a specific route: promote the participation of private persons and entities directed at the development of letters, music, plastic arts and stage-musical arts, including theatre, ballet and opera, and assign them funds and provide them advice per the norms and criteria the Board of Directors establishes. And Section 4(a)(28) authorises a programme of managerial service and economic aid for museums, galleries and libraries.

6. 6

   Step 6: What money all this comes from

   Section 5 establishes the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Fund to perform the functions the Act authorises. Income from operations and any money appropriated, granted, transferred or donated to the Institute are credited to it, and it is available to pay all expenses; investments may be made in obligations of the Government and its dependencies and public corporations with the Secretary of the Treasury’s approval. The funds are deposited in recognised banking entities located in Puerto Rico, in accounts in the Institute’s name, and disbursements are made per the norms and regulations approved by the Board of Directors on the Executive Director’s recommendation. The Institute keeps an accounting system approved by the Treasury, segregable by activity or programme, and submits annually to the Legislative Assembly, through the Governor’s Office, its expense budget and that of each of its programmes.

7. 7

   Step 7: Be careful what you declare in the application

   This point reaches the applicant directly. Section 4(b)(3)(D) provides that any person who knowingly makes any false representation, certification or statement under this Act, or any other applicable act or its regulations, or who makes any false representation within any report or document required under those acts or regulations, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, penalised under Article 16 of the Penal Code. And it adds that any person with personal knowledge of the violation may promote the pertinent action before the competent authorities. Administratively, that same clause authorises fines of up to ten thousand dollars per infraction, each day it subsists being treatable as an independent violation, and up to fifty thousand dollars more if contumacy is determined.

8. 8

   Step 8: What the Act does not publish about the procedure

   We name the gap before filling it. Act 89-1955 publishes no form, deadline, scholarship amount, minimum grade average, age, residence requirement, list of eligible institutions, term for the Institute to decide, or appeal route if you are denied. The text itself refers repeatedly to “the norms and criteria the Board of Directors establishes” and to the norms and guidelines the Institute adopts, which is where all that detail lives. What you can demand from the Act is that the award be competitive on academic merit, that distribution be equitable across areas without favouring specialities, and that the Programme be adequately disseminated. Cost and time are unverified because the Act does not publish them.

Before the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, which operates the Scholarship Programme created by this Act, grants the prizes and evaluates the applications for economic aid from its own funds. The norms and criteria for each route are established by the Institute’s Board of Directors, and disbursements are made per the norms and regulations that Board approves on the Executive Director’s recommendation. The Act publishes no forms, addresses, telephones or portals, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Believing the scholarship is only for graduate studies: the Act transferred the graduate scholarship programme into the Programme, but sets the purpose as stimulating and facilitating studies in the plastic arts and allied artistic and humanistic disciplines, without limiting it by level.
• Not counting on the counterpart: the holder commits to giving one free activity, at the Institute’s option, within two years after finishing the studies.
• Thinking the holder chooses the free activity: the Act says “at the option of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture”.
• Counting the two years from receiving the money: they run from finishing the studies for which the scholarship was received.
• Applying for a discipline outside the scope: guideline (C) circumscribes scholarships to the plastic arts and other artistic and humanistic disciplines akin to the Institute’s purposes.
• Believing the economic aid is only for organisations: Section 4(a)(18) expressly mentions private individuals.
• Looking in the Act for the deadline or the form: the text refers to the norms and criteria the Board of Directors establishes.
• Ignoring the prizes: Section 4(a)(14) authorises prizes in cash, books, records and medals to those who contribute to conserving culture, and it is a route distinct from the scholarship.
• Exaggerating or falsifying something in the application: a knowingly false representation, certification or statement is a misdemeanour, and any person with personal knowledge may promote the action.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (ICP)

  ICP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov