Call For Applications: British Council West Africa Arts Festival Fund (10.000 Gbp Grant) - Arterial Network

Application deadline : 7 March.

The British Council has launched a West Africa Festival Fund. 

The organisation aims to connect  UK and West African festivals catering to any of several art fields.

These connections, says the festival, “will be facilitated through reciprocal programming of young, emerging artists between UK and West African festivals, professional development of artists and festival management teams, exchange visits between UK and West Africa and other collaborative activities between festivals in the UK and West Africa”.

The fund is set up to support 10 projects involving West Africa and the UK in music, film, performing and visual arts, architecture, design, fashion and literature. The fund will take “particularly interest” in festivals involving deployment of “digital tools innovatively for production or distribution”.

Festivals based in the following countries are eligible for participation: Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and the UK. All projects must have a UK-West Africa connection.

The maximum amount granted to any festival is ‎£10 000 (or its equivalent in the local currency). Festivals likely to be successful might have to “demonstrate higher value for money and require less than the maximum grant amount”.  

Criteria

Interested festivals must:

• Take place in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone or the UK (although artists in other West African countries can participate in the festivals).
• Take place between June 2018 and March 2019.
• Have held a minimum of two editions as of 31 March 2018.

Support must be needed for the following type of activities:

• Presentation of UK/West African artists (through showcasing – performance, readings, screening etc), facilitation of workshops, seminars, panel discussions, outreach/community events etc.).
• UK/West Africa festival co-production of events.
• Professional development for artists or festival management teams (reciprocally).

According to the British Council, successful festivals “will need to attend webinars organised by the British Council on modules including equality, diversity and inclusion, child protection, fundraising and evaluation as a requirement to access the grant”.

For more information, click here. To apply, click here.