Arterial Network Hosts Public Debate - Arterial Network

CULTURE AND CONFLICT: WHAT ROLE FOR THE ARTS AND ARTISTS?

Arterial Network, its South African Chapter and the African Arts Institute invite you to a Public Debate, occasioned by the African Arts Institute's next Cultural Leadership Training Programme, Arterial Network's 7th Anniversary and Arterial Network South Africa's first public seminar of 2014. This is a rare opportunity to connect with high profile cultural leaders from Southern Africa and to listen to an enthralling debate, particularly as elections approach and we celebrate 20 years of democracy.

Date: Tuesday 4 March

Time: 6pm to 8pm

Place: District Six Homecoming Centre

Guest Speakers:

Pregs Govender (South African Human Rights Commission)

Harry Garuba (African Arts Institute, University of Cape Town)

Moderator: Andre Le Roux (Chairperson, Arterial Network South Africa)

With inputs from Christine Gitau (Craft AfriKa,Kenya) and Oriane Ruzibiza (Rwanda)

Culture can be a site of struggle.  Culture can be a cause of struggle.  Culture can be a means of struggle.  Culture can also facilitate dialogue.  Culture can be a means of education.  Culture can help people live in peace. One cannot separate artistic practices from their broader social, economic, political and cultural contexts. Culture shapes lives and identity and is a basic determinant of the pace of social change. Culture is therefore a crucial factor in processes related to development in all societies.

What then, should be the response and role of artists and the cultural community in a given society? The aim of the panel will be to discuss how cultural values can be employed to promote and sustain peace in conflict situations, maintain peace and uphold freedom of critical expression in non-conflict areas; to discuss the effect of conflict on social and economic life, security and democracy, to explore ways and means in which culture can create and sustain peace, amongst other themes.

Join us for some snacks and beverages at the Homecoming Centre for an exclusive occasion to network, participate in the debate and celebrate Arterial Network’s 7th anniversary.  

Please RSVP by Thursday 27 February to info@arterialnetwork.org or 021 465 9027.

Participants

Pregs Govender is the Author of "Love and Courage, A Story of Insubordination". After the first democratic elections in 1994, she served as an ANC MP in the National Assembly. She is widely respected for her role in advancing gender responsive budgets. As Chair of Parliament's Committee on Women, she ensured that most of its priorities aimed at advancing women's rights and gender equality, were enacted. She resigned in 2002, after holding public hearings on Hiv/AIDS in 2001 and being the only MP to register opposition to the arms deal in the Defence Budget vote. In 2007-2009 she chaired the Independent Panel Assessment of Parliament.

Harry Garuba is the Head of Department and Associate Professor in the Centre for African Studies and the Chairperson of the African Arts Institute board. In addition to being an author and poet, he is a member of the editorial advisory board of the Heinemann African Writers Series and one of the editors of the newly established electronic journal Postcolonial Text. He has an active interest in African and postcolonial literatures and has published a volume of poetry Shadow and Dream & Other Poems, and has edited another Voices from the Fringe.

Andre le Roux is the Chairperson of Arterial Network South Africa. He is an arts administrator and cultural activist with a strong passion for the development of cultural policy and for building cultural institutions. His experience ranges from grassroots level on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape, to provincial level for the Eastern Cape Government, National and International level for the South African Department of Arts & Culture and the National Arts Council. Andre is a former Chairperson of the Moshito Music Conference and Exhibition, and of the South African Coalition for Cultural Diversity. He is currently a board member of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunste Fees, Business and Arts South Africa and the SAMRO Foundation (Executive General Manager).

Christine Gitau lives and works in Nairobi as a craft enterprise coach and mentor. She is co founder of Craft Afrika, a social enterprise that provides holistic support to craft entrepreneurs and the convener of Africa Handmade, a symposium focusing on African craft producers, the first of which will be held in Nairobi in October 2014. She sits on the board of Hawa House Trust Foundation, an NGO that applies art as therapy for young victims of sexual abuse. When she is lucky, Christine also finds time to indulge her passion in ceramic art.

Oriane Ruzibiza is an independent arts consultant from Rwanda and the former Executive Director of the Ishyo Arts Centre of Kigali. Through her involvement in various cultural projects she strives to foster and push for the development of  South-South Cultural Cooperation. 

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Arterial Network is a dynamic, pan-African civil society network comprising artists, activists, organisations and institutions engaged in the African creative and cultural sectors. Operating across 90% of Africa, Arterial Network is actively engaged in strengthening the creative sectors and utilising arts and culture to contribute towards development, democracy, human rights and the eradication of poverty on the continent.

The African Arts Institute (AFAI) is a non-profit entity that works, in South Africa, in support of the creative sector across the continent. The Cultural Leadership training is part of a three-year programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by AFAI in partnership with Arterial Network and local partners across five African regions.  Since its launch last year close to 100 individuals, from African creative or related sectors have successfully completed courses in Cultural Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Training Development.

Arterial Network South Africa is one of Arterial Network’s 40 Chapters on the African Continent. Among its Steering Committee members are Chairperson Andre le Roux (SAMRO), and Deputy Chairperson Yvette Hardie (ASSITEJ-SA). Valmont Layne is its Secretary General.

Contact Jeanne Hefez, Communications Manager, at jeanne@arterialnetwork.org for queries.