The ARTerial network needs your support and participation

After confirming its funding the ARTerial network reports that:

The following projects and activities are being planned for 2010: the second networking and advocacy “winter school”; monthly in-country seminars; cultural policy reading groups and publications; research and a conference on the African creative economy; the establishment of an African arts sponsors’ network; the production of toolkits in arts marketing, arts advocacy, fundraising and the business of the arts; working towards establishing an African Fund for arts and Culture; leadership training and mentoring; monthly newsletters; the ongoing development of the arts-in-Africa website; the production of an African Directory on Arts and Culture; the launch of a number of in-country networks that would have their own internal programmes; the establishment of a cultural policy task group to work on cultural policy issues from a civil society perspective and training courses in cultural entrepreneurship, the use of information technology in the arts, arts marketing, etc. In order to grow our capacity around the continent, we will also establish our first regional secretariat in Kenya within the first six months of 2010.

Become a member of the network

The Arterial Network is pleased to extend an invitation to you to become a member of our network for free. This membership can be full, honorary or as an associate. Full explanations about membership and benefits are available on our website: http://www.arterialnetwork.org as well as in our constitution.

The Arterial Network comprises of individuals, institutions, membership-based organisations and funding partners working to support the effectiveness and growth of an African arts and culture civil society. Our vision is of a vibrant, dynamic and sustainable African creative sector engaged in qualitative practice in the arts in their own right, as well as in a manner that contributes to development, to the eradication of poverty, to human rights and to democracy on the African continent.

To apply for membership complete the membership form on our website, http://www.arterialnetwork.org. It will be automatically sent through to our database. The Arterial Network Project Manager, Margerie Vacle, is available to answer any questions you may have. You can contact her on .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). We look forward to welcoming you on board the Arterial Network.

Get involved in the network’s training sessions

The second Arterial Network training programme in building national advocacy networks will take place from 10-20 April, most likely in a country north of Southern Africa. The first networking “winter school” was held in Cape Town and the next two – again supported by the European Union and HIVOS – will each be held in a different region.

Given the conference decision to build national networks to – among others – lobby for civil society involvement in the implementation of the Nairobi Plan of Action on Cultural Industries, these training sessions are crucial to the development of national artists’ networks.

Those interested in attending should send applications to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 19 February 2010 and should include a letter motivating why they should attend and how the training programme will benefit the establishment or consolidation of a national network in their country. The application should also include a CV and letters of reference of two persons affirming the applicant’s involvement in artists’ networks in their country.

Help build national networks

One of the key outcomes of the Arterial Network conference in September was the appointment of country representatives for at least 28 countries, their primary task being the establishment of in-country artist networks, working under the banner of, or in association with Arterial Network. Thus far, Liberia and Swaziland have already established interim Steering Committees and Mali and Zimbabwe have reported progress in this regard too.

Join reading groups and monthly seminars

Reading groups will be structured around the following themes:

1.The cultural dimension of development: what is its relevance today?
2.Understanding the creative industries and its importance within Africa, particularly in the light of the Nairobi Plan of Action on Cultural Industries.
3.Intellectual property rights within an African context.
4.Climate change and its impact on culture, cultural diversity and culture and development.
5.The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and its relevance to Africa.
6.Intercultural dialogue, cultural diplomacy and its meaning for Africa.
7.The Recommendation on the Rights and Status of the Artist and its applicability to African countries.
8.Culture, the arts, human rights and democracy in the African context.
9.Artists’ mobility within Africa and between Africa and other continents.

Anyone interested in participating in – and in leading – such reading groups within their city/country, should write to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by 5 February 2010, indicating which reading group theme they would like to engage with.

The agreed monthly themes for the seminars are:
February: The cultural dimension of development and its relevance to Africa today.
March: Understanding the Creative Industries and its importance – if any – to Africa.
April: The Nairobi Plan of Action on Cultural Industries: a civil society response.
May: Climate change and its relevance to culture, cultural diversity and culture and development.
June: The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Just another document?
July: Intellectual property rights, piracy and collective ownership within an African context.
August: Intercultural dialogue and cultural diplomacy.

Write blogs

To encourage debate and writing about issues affecting arts and culture on the continent, Arterial Network will be posting a weekly blog of no more than 650 words on http://www.artsinafrica.com. The subjects may be about anything as determined by the writer, with the encouragement to be interesting, provocative and insightful.

Participants in the cultural policy seminar offered a variety of blog topics including Religion: promoter or inhibitor of cultural diversity; shifting the tourist market from kitsch to art and Are women’s rights relevant to arts and culture?

Anyone is invited to submit an article of 500-650 words on a subject of their choice, which will be posted by the Secretariat, depending on the availability of space. Please send these to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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