African Funds For The Arts - Arterial Network

The African Fund for the Arts (AFA) is being established by Arterial Network as an independent African grant making initiative to serve the African arts, cultural and creative sectors. Set up to support individuals, organisations and institutions working across all artistic disciplines as well as research, cultural exchange and programmes to strengthen the sector, AFA will operate as a centralised funding mechanism serving all African countries.

The Fund has been registered as a non-profit organisation in Ghana.  As such, the Fund will hold a permanent footing in the African arts and cultural landscape enabling it to directly engage with, and be responsive to, the sector’s needs while at the same time, engage with current and potential donors to increase investments into Africa’s arts and cultural sector.

Background:

At Arterial Network’s founding conference in March 2007 it was identified that one of the primary needs within Africa’s creative sector was an African Fund for the Arts. Due to the significant absence of public and private sector support, civil society action was needed to generate greater investment and advocate the sector’s need for greater support to grow Africa’s dynamic arts and cultural sector. Responding to this civil-society call, research was undertaken to determine an appropriate business model and location within Africa to host the Fund, taking into account the necessary infrastructure, macro-economic policies and sound financial systems.

Aims

1. support the creation of African creative goods and services 
2. support the distribution of African creative work nationally, regionally and internationally through festivals, tours and other means
3. support capacity-building within the African creative sector, including the training and mentoring of artists, creative entrepreneurs, policy-makers, arts managers, trainers-of-trainers, educators, researchers, arts marketers, cultural leaders, etc.
4. support the development and sustainability of suitable infrastructure and human resources to underpin creation and distribution of creative goods and services on the African continent
5. support the mobility of African artists, entrepreneurs and creative intellectuals on the continent and globally to project African aesthetics, thought and products globally
6. support artists and cultural networks to promote and defend the rights and interests of African creative workers nationally, regionally and internationally
7. support the development and implementation of sound institutional and regulatory frameworks to underpin the creative sector within each African country
8. support research, the development of theoretical positions and tools from within an African paradigm as well as the collection and distribution of information and data relevant to the growth and sustainability of Africa’s creative sector
9. support cultural exchange and artistic collaboration between African artists on the continent and between African artists in the Diaspora
10. support strategies, activities and programmes to grow local, national and regional audiences and markets for African creative goods

For more information about this project, please contact us.