A continental group of artists, managers and institutions has set up a task force that is working out modalities for the establishment of an African Arts Journalists Network.

The contiental group runs the South Africa-based Arterial Network which works in tandem with a sister institution called the African Arts Institute.

Among other things, the network will strive to build the capacity of journalists through training that will enable them to become professional and critical analysts of creative and artistic expression.

Furthermore, the network will serve as a catalyst to stimulate the public interest in artistic expressions on the continent in a bid to improve the living condition of artists.

The task force was set up on the sidelines of the just-ended eleventh edition of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).

The network is being set up against a huge deficit in training and the decreasing space for the work of arts journalists on the continent.

It is a fact that most of the African journalists reporting arts and culture have very little or no training or scientific knowledge about their assignments.

Hence, they cannot play the anticipated critical role in fully educating, informing and motivating the public and effectively engage it in a critical discourse that could help develop the different forms of artistic expressions on the continent.

Arterial Network’s General Secretary Mike van Graan, says once established, the network will be guided by a commitment to the freedom of the media, of creative expression and to the highest journalistic ethical standards.

The Arterial Network brought together about 20 arts journalists from West, Central, North, Southern African and the Indian Ocean in a bid to kick start the network which comes into existence later this year