By Christopher Lidom
KUCHING, Oct 9: Some fifty-three nominees will compete for 11 prestigious awards in the Anugerah Seni Budaya Sarawak (ASBS) 2023 on Oct 22.
Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry, and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said ASBS 2023 is a synergy programme between Federal and State governments to give recognition to arts and culture figures or industry players by presenting an award at the state level.
According to Abdul Karim, the recognition is also given to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other parties who support and are involved in art and culture programmes in Sarawak.
“ASBS was last held in 2016, where the top award was given to Matthew Ngau Jau in the music category and 2015 to Ramli bin Ali in the dance category.
“It is not often for the artists to receive this kind of recognition, and this will surely increase the motivation for them to continue to be active in the field of art and culture,” he told a press conference held at Baitulmakmur Building II today.
Abdul Karim said the government also sincerely hopes that through the implementation of the ASBS 2023, it will be able to re-invigorate art and culture activities and restore the economy of the local people.
“This programme is also a platform that is hoped to produce a community that cultivates and produces new talent of the artist to further develop cultural arts in Sarawak,” he added.
ASBS 2023 will be held at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) complex this year.
The programme will see 11 awards presented to the winners, namely ‘Anugerah Tokoh Seni Budaya Sarawak’ (NGO and media), ‘Anugerah Sri Apresiasi Seni Sarawak’, ‘Anugerah Nilakandi Seni Sarawak’ while the other six awards are under the sub-categories for the arts, namely dance art, music art, theatre art, language arts, martial arts and traditional games with a total prize of RM35,000. — DayakDaily
