Directory for Arts & Culture (Cameroon) Released
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Cultural Entrepreneurs Seminar
Problem statement
Africa is blessed with unique creativity and outstandingly talented artists. However, there is a desperate shortage of the skills required to translate this creativity and talent into sustainable, even profitable, enterprises. Some of the consequences of this are that talented artists die as paupers, or they leave the sector for other income-generating work, or they leave the continent or their countries of birth to pursue their careers elsewhere. This results not only in a loss of talent and creativity, but also in the loss of income and human capital for the continent.
There is thus an urgent need, to equip artists with basic business skills, but, more importantly, to develop a cadre of skilled cultural entrepreneurs who can promote, market, manage and export the intellectual property of creative people of the African continent, locally, regionally and globally.
Aims of Project
Africa is blessed with unique creativity and outstandingly talented artists. However, there is a desperate shortage of the skills required to translate this creativity and talent into sustainable, even profitable, enterprises. Some of the consequences of this are that talented artists die as paupers, or they leave the sector for other income-generating work, or they leave the continent or their countries of birth to pursue their careers elsewhere. This results not only in a loss of talent and creativity, but also in the loss of income and human capital for the continent.
There is thus an urgent need, to equip artists with basic business skills, but, more importantly, to develop a cadre of skilled cultural entrepreneurs who can promote, market, manage and export the intellectual property of creative people of the African continent, locally, regionally and globally.
Aims of Project
- to provide hard skills, basic training and insights for cultural entrepreneurs already active in the field for at least two years, to help them to build more effective cultural enterprises
- to identify and set up relationships between cultural entrepreneurs trained through the programme and local and international mentors to help them to develop further
- to identify the challenges and possibilities of working as cultural entrepreneurs on the African continent, and to develop programmes to respond to these
- to introduce cultural entrepreneurs working in various environments to appropriate methods and technology to improve their work
- to contribute towards the emergence of a continent-wide network of cultural entrepreneurs
Participant target
- 20-25 cultural entrepreneurs – individuals or small businesses operating in the cultural field who aim to earn their livelihood in this
- Area - with a minimum of two years experience (i.e. not entry level candidates at this point) drawn from Francophone and Anglophone regions
- The selection of the groups should aim for an equal number of men and women, preferably between 25-45 years old
- The range of experience among candidates should include marketing,
publicity, artist managers, festival directors, independent producers,
promoters, etc
