Mini-summit on arts, culture and social justice

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Each year, only a few South Africans are able to travel abroad to participate in international arts and culture forums.  Now, the African Arts Institute (AFAI), with the support of the Commonwealth Foundation and Ford Foundation, is bringing leading thinkers and practitioners in the arts and culture from the Arab region, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific and Caribbean to Cape Town and Johannesburg, creating exciting and unique opportunities for local practitioners to learn from their counterparts who practice their art or provide cultural leadership in social, economic and political conditions similar to ours.

A day-long mini-summit on arts, culture and social justice will be held on 1 October at the Slave Lodge in Wale Street, Cape Town, followed by a public forum at the District Six Museum Homecoming Centre, 15 Buitenkant Street at 18:30.  The mini-summit will be repeated at the Goethe Institut in Johannesburg on Friday 3 October, with the public forum taking place at the same venue the prior evening, Thursday 2 October at 18:00.

The mini-summit will begin with each international participant introducing their work in the context of their respective region or country.  The Arab region have representatives from Egypt  and Lebanon; Asia will have Singapore, Bangladesh and India; Fiji will represent the Pacific region; Latin America will be represented by Argentina, Brazil and Chile, the Caribbean by Trinidad and Tobago and Morocco, Tanzania and Mali will represent Africa.

After the introductory session, a representative from each region will participate in a panel discussion on: ‘The possibilities and limitations of South-South Cultural Co-operation in the context of global economic, security and cultural dynamic’.

This discussion will address themes related to cultural exchange, cultural diplomacy, intercultural dialogue and artists’ mobility (visas, funding, opportunities, etc) within the global South, and in the context of current geo-politics and North-South inequalities and funding power relations.

After lunch, there will be two rounds of roundtable discussions led by the international participants.  In the first round, delegates may choose from seven transversal topics: Arts funding: Innovative fundraising and partnership models; Artist-led models for collaboration and sustainability; Contemporary global south/global north debates around the creative economy and creative industries; Art, artists and freedom of expression in societies in transition: the relationship of civil society to the state; Cultural rights and human rights - Global South perspectives; Culture in the post-2015 international development agenda; and Current discourses in cultural policy: what are the primary themes and what or who is shaping the discourse?

The second round of roundtable discussions will be more discipline-specific. Delegates may choose from Visual arts and photography; Writing, publishing and literature; Theatre and dance;  Arts management and administration; Public art:; Festivals and Heritage.

In the evening public forums, selected international participants will engage in a public conversation on the topic: Our changing world – how is it impacting on arts and culture and how are the arts and culture impacting on our changing world?

The purpose of the panel is to interrogate the proposition that culture, the arts and creative industries contribute to development, to conflict resolution and to national identity.  But what is the relevance of culture and the arts in a world impacted by wars in Syria, Libya and Palestine, by the rise of Boko Haram, the Islamic State and El Shabab, by ongoing inequalities in the distribution of economic, political, military and cultural power globally and regionally?  What is the role of the arts – and how are they impacted – in struggles for social justice globally, regionally and nationally?

The international delegates will be in South Africa for a preparatory meeting to plan a Global South Colloquium on Arts, Culture and Social Justice scheduled for 2015.

These delegates include Oussama Rifahi, Executive Director of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture; Georgia Haddad-Nicolau, Director of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management in the Brazilian Ministry of Culture; Anupama Sekhar, Acting Director of the Culture Department of the Asia-Europe Foundation; Ayeta Wangusa, Director of  Culture and Development East Africa and Magdalena Moreno Mujica, Deputy Director of the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies, and Director of the World Summit on Arts and Culture held in Chile in January 2014; Nicholas Laughlin, Editor of the Caribbean Review of Books; Aadel Essaadani, the Morocco-based Chairperson of Arterial Network; Sanjna Kapoor, Director of Junoon Theatre in India; Shahidul Alam, an internationally acclaimed photographer based in Bangladesh; Elise Huffer, Human Development Advisor: Culture for the Secretariat of Pacific Community; Patricia Kistenmacher of the Latin America Network; Attaher Maiga, engaged in the Festival sur Niger in Mali and Abdallah Daif, Programme Manager for the Gudrana Association for Art and Development in Egypt.  They will be joined by a South African, Peter Rorvik, Secretary General of Arterial Network.

The mini-summits will run from 09:00 to 17:00, with the two-hour evening public forums starting at 18:30 in Cape Town on Wed 1 Oct and at 18:00 in Johannesburg on Thurs 2 Oct.

There is limited capacity at both mini-summits and to help cover the costs of these events, there is a fee of R300 per person, which includes lunch and teas.  A few half- or full-bursaries are available for those who cannot afford the whole or part of this fee.

To book a place (these will be granted on a first-come, first served basis and will be confirmed after receipt of the fee), contact Sophia Sanan at sophia@afai.org.za.  The closing date for applications and payment of fees is Friday 26 September 2014.

We look forward to welcoming you at one of the summits and/or public forums.

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