The Arterial Network was launched at a conference on Goiree Island, Senegal in March 2007, with the theme Vitalising African Cultural Assets.  The Conference took place against the backdrop of the adoption of UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions; the challenge was to position African artists, creative practice and cultural industries so that they could benefit from the recommendations of the Convention and assert their place on the global stage and in the global creative economy. 

1.Vision
The vision of ARTERIAL NETWORK is of a vibrant, dynamic and sustainable African creative civil society 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.

2. Aims

2.1 to build and/or further develop effective, sustainable national, regional and continental networks within and across arts disciplines to play advocacy and lobbying roles within countries, regions, on the continent and internationally as appropriate, and in support of the African creative sector;

2.2 to collect and distribute relevant information, data and documents to empower civil society arts and culture organisations in African countries and regions to plan and take informed action in their interests;

2.3 to provoke debate, discussions and theorising around arts, culture, creative industries and contemporary arts and culture discourses and to develop African positions and leadership on such issues;

2.4 to help to build national, regional, continental and international circuits (festivals, outlets, etc) to distribute African cultural goods and services and enable African artists to tour their works and to generate income through their creative output;

2.5 to facilitate the training and development of human resources required to practice, distribute and market the arts and creative goods and services of the African continent;

2.6 to mobilise local, regional, continental and international resources in support of the development, promotion and distribution of African creative goods and services;

2.7 to improve the working and living conditions, and defend the rights of artists and creative practitioners on the African continent.


3. Statement of Principles
ARTERIAL NETWORK is committed to the following fundamental principles which members are required to abide by and practice:

3.1 a commitment to participatory democracy including free and fair elections of leadership and accountability to membership;

3.2 a commitment to human rights as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the right to freedom of creative expression;

3.3 a commitment to transparency in decision-making, the allocation of tenders and paid work, the communication of decisions and in all financial matters with the concomitant need to declare conflicts of interest, real and potential;

3.4 a commitment to partnerships, to working collaboratively with existing organisations and institutions and to sharing resources and knowledge, rather than working in competition and consuming resources through duplication;

3.5 anti-discrimination on the basis of gender, language, culture, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religious belief, health, age and disability;

3.6 respect for cultural diversity and cultural co-existence but recognising the need to challenge cultural practices that conflict with fundamental human rights;

3.7 recognising and affirming different forms of knowledge, including traditional and indigenous knowledge;

3.8 respect for the varying conditions in which artists and markets operate on the continent and the need to respond to this range of conditions;

3.9 continuous pursuit of international best practice and improvement of the quality of products, goods, services and organisational practices while rooted in African experience;

3.10 a commitment to addressing the challenge of HIV/AIDS within Africa’s creative sector;

3.11 a commitment to working in the best interests of ARTERIAL NETWORK as a whole and the pursuit of its vision and strategic objectives rather than individual or factionary interests.