Make your voice heard and invite others to participate
During 2025, we began various research initiatives to monitor where culture lives and what we can do to further strengthen culture in its entirety in Aruba. At the same time, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) launched and financed a project called “Where Culture Lives.”
“Where Culture Lives” is a project aimed at identifying where culture exists across our islands. At this moment, a survey is being conducted across all six islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius) among people who practice or participate in culture.
This includes all artistic disciplines, gastronomy, media, cultural management, heritage, natural heritage, documentation, cultural participation, literature, design, oral history, national celebrations, cultural events, and all other cultural sectors and practices.
The Department of Culture Aruba invites the community to participate in this survey. The survey is anonymous, takes approximately 8–10 minutes to complete, and the results will be used by both the Government of the Netherlands and the governments of the islands involved to identify how the cultural sector on the islands can be supported.
If you would like to participate in this research and have your voice heard, you can complete the survey via the link below:
“Mapping Cultural Practices in the Dutch Caribbean” – Papiamento survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GVWND6J
Additionally, if you know others who may be interested in completing the survey, feel free to share it with them. Participants can range from young people aged 6 years old (if younger, preferably completed together with an adult) to cultural practitioners with many years of experience in the sector.
You may share the link on social media and/or in group chats with students, friends, colleagues, or family members who are involved in cultural activities. At the end of the day, every citizen of Aruba is more than welcome to complete the survey, as we all practice culture in one way or another.
The more people who complete the survey, the more valid the results will be, and this will also demonstrate the importance of the voices within the cultural sector.
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. We hope that as many people as possible will learn about this opportunity to express themselves in this way.
