Insights into Cultural Policies in Lebanon is a compilation of three studies that offers cultural researchers and workers, as well as others interested in cultural policies, an in-depth look at (1) the Legal Frameworks regulating the Lebanese Cultural Sector, (2) the public financing of culture, and (3) heritage and policymaking in the country. It is groundbreaking in its significant updates on research into cultural legislation, its exploration of essential details needed to understand the operational and budgetary mechanisms of the Ministry of Culture, and its highlight on threatened heritage, especially after the Beirut port explosion of 4 August 2020. The studies are introduced and edited by Hanane Hajj Ali and Nadia von Maltzahn, and were published in February 2021 after a long journey of research, drafting, and updating that began in 2017 by the Lebanese National Cultural Policy Group, with funding from Culture Resource and the Orient Institut.
More details will be announced soon!
Culture Resource in partnership with Kirkelig Kulturverksted (Norway) presents the 20/21 online edition of Redzone Festival from 4 till 7 March, 2021. Redzone is an annual multidisciplinary festival, launched in 2013, that advocates a critical approach to contemporary issues and features artistic works that focus on themes related to freedom of expression in arts and culture. Previous editions of Redzone Festival were held in Cairo, Beirut, Tunis, Tangier and Oslo.
See mawred.org
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Bobi Wine i FB melding 6. januar: "- After imprisoning our entire campaign team, today they blocked the new medical and security teams and also impounded the media cars. They said I must go to the campaign alone. They thought that would affect the support we have from the people. This is us going through Iganga on our way to Namisindwa. This is a revolution. #WeAreRemovingADictator
Opptakten til presidentvalget i Uganda minner mest om et folkeopprør. Valgdagen 14. januar utfordrer Ghetto-musikeren Bobi Wine landets regime. Bak seg har Wine stjernestatus og millioner av landsmenn. En etter en tar seg nå over den høye muren av frykt som president Museveni har bygget gjennom 35 år ved makten. Valget trenger internasjonal oppmerksomhet.
The presidential election in Uganda is on January 14, 2021. The election campaign is dramatic. The election could be catastrophic. Museweni has been in office for the past 34 years. Now he is challenged by 38-year-old Bobi Wine. Wine, or Robert Kyagulanyi as he is actually called, became a member of parliament in 2017. He made a name for himself quickly, and already in the autumn of 2017 was he at the forefront of the fight against the extension of the constitutional age limit for the presidency.
Call for applications: October 29, 2020
Submission deadline: December 25, 2020
LINK
The Youth-led Cultural & Civic Initiatives aim to encourage community-based and contextual projects using collaborative approaches and to raise knowledge and capacities of young artists, collectives and cultural operators from underserved areas on the development of contextual work, and community engagement in cultural and civic activities.
The component will offer:
● Up to32 research and 24 production grantsto support youth-led cultural & civic initiatives to implement community-based and contextual artistic production;
● Two Collaborative Laboratorieswill take place consecutively where up to 16 artists, collectives and cultural operators will exchange experiences and raise capacities on cultural and civic project development applying community-based and contextual methodologies; and
● Tailor made guidance, networking and support opportunities will be provided.
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Mimeta is now designing a financial response mechanism to the pressures COVID-19 puts on established organizations, platforms and performers within arts and culture. In 2020 we will hopefully be able to provide organizational support to our established partners in MENA and Africa South of Sahara so that they will be able to continue their efforts on behalf of the local arts- and culture sectors.
However, a major part of their latest proposals shows us a need for urgent support of art platforms and artists to enable livelihood and continuity. Mimeta will therefore ask our partners to manage the disbursement of smaller funds toward their constituencies, preferably in partnerships with other leading culture sector development organizations in their geography. Again - this is wat we hope we will be able to support.
In our view we don’t need to launch any innovative approach, as “use this time to develop distant learning and video-concerts”, as this already happens all over the globe, but we are open for proposals - as long as it is a substantially new way to give marginalized people their right bound access to arts and culture.
Initiatives:
The Abbara program aims to support and empower independent cultural and artistic initiatives and organizations from the Arab region. In this framework, the program is now offering exceptional financial support to cover basic organizational expenses (administrative staff salaries, rental payments, running costs, etc.) to help organizations adjust to the current circumstances and survive at this time of rapid change.
FOLLOW THIS LINK
Art Lives: Emergency Initiative to Support Arab Arts Practitioners. FOLLOW THIS LINK
The African Culture Fund (ACF) launches the Solidarity Fund for Artists and Cultural Organizations in Africa (SOFACO) in order to support the resilience of African artists and cultural actors whose activities have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 crisis. FOLLOW THIS LINK
Culture Resource and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) embarked on their first collaboration to try and address some of the pressing needs facing the arts and culture sector in Lebanon, at a time when the country is in the throes of social and political upheaval due to nation-wide economic collapse that is having serious repercussions on daily life. FOLLOW THIS LINK
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought all artistic and cultural life outside cyberspace to a halt. It is impossible to foresee, as of yet, how long this will last and what impacts it will have on artistic and cultural practices. The suspension of cultural and artistic activities combined with the economic fallout of the pandemic has compounded the pressures on workers in the arts and culture sector. This is all the more the case in Arab countries which lack cultural policies and governmental and communal structures that support this sector. These grants target artists and writers in the Arab region involved in the production of individual or collaborative artistic or literary projects. FOLLOW THIS LINK
In response to the global health crisis, particularly affecting the cultural sector, Africalia supports artists in their creative dynamics by setting up the "Creativity is life" grants. FOLLOW THIS LINK
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This capacity-building programme aims at providing full-time research opportunities for young Syrian and Palestinian- Syrian researchers (22-35 years old) within the field of cultural studies. The programme seeks to enhance the researchers’ skills, providing them the tools and guidance to accomplish their research project (The programme will probably be their first research endeavour since their academic studies). Experienced cultural researchers, who constitute the programme’s selection committee, will directly supervise the projects.
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Pic from Al Mawred, one of signatories of statement
In solidarity with and participation in the popular uprisings taking place across Lebanon against the current systems of power, we the undersigned cultural organizations and structures collectively commit to Open Strike, and call for our colleagues in the cultural sector to join us.
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A first of its kind in the Arab region, the Master’s in Cultural Policy and Cultural Management is a two-year program taught in both Arabic and English. It is hosted by the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ben M’sik, at the Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco. Culture Resource established this program with Hassan II University and the University of Hildesheim in Germany and its UNESCO Chair for Cultural Policies for Arts in Development as a cooperating partner. The program is supported by the Ford Foundation and the British Council.
- Det er veldig trist at fire syriske musikerne som skulle vært i Risør til helga ikke får visum til Norge etter å ha arbeidet sammen med musikere fra Risør og nabokommunene over lang tid, sier ordfører Per Kr. Lunden. Han har brukt kontakter i Utenriksdepartementet for å prøve å få til en ny vurdering av søknaden, men oppfatter det som nytteløst. Men ordføreren er glad for at det likevel blir en flott internasjonal kulturbegivenhet i Risørhuset til helgen.
Kolleger i Forum for kultur og utvikling uttrykker bekymringer for norsk utviklingspolitikk på kulturfeltet, senest i Vårt Land i går. Et hovedanliggende er den reduserte rollen norsk kultursektor har fått i gjennomføringen av politikken. Den andre bekymringen er de dramatiske kuttene i pengebruken gjennom Solbergs regjeringstid. Personlig er jeg mindre bekymret for det første enn det andre.
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Cultural Policy in the Arab Region has just published "Part Three of “The State of the Arts - Current Issues in Artistic and Literary Creativity in the Arab Region” first published at Jadaliyya website - 15/02/2018. Author of the article, Basma Al-Husseiny, will be part of the panel at The International Culture Seminar in Arendal, Norway, on 13th August 2018.
The success of the third edition of Visa For Music, in November 2016 illustrated the growth of this event on the international stage. It became an indispensable international marketplace for World and New Music of these regions, but also a professional platform for the music industry in Morocco and countries of the South.
VFM Ambiance @Visa for Music
The fourth edition of Visa for Music (VFM), organised in collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Culture and the Hiba Foundation, will be held in Rabat, Morocco, from 22 till 25 November 2017. This forum is one of the most important opportunities for cultural exchange and networking between musicians, agents, recording companies, artistic directors, cultural organisations, media, trainers and others involved in music in Africa and the Middle East.
On top of a sumptuous musical program, VFM 2017 includes numerous cultural activities such as honorary ceremonies, seminars, workshops and training courses, speed-meetings and a music industry and cultural expo. The official selection for this year's concert program features around 40 musicians/bands plus four DJ artists. You can check here the full list of artists.
This major musical forum is organized by the ANYA organization which is currently a participant in the fifth round of Culture Resource’s Abbara Program which seeks to support and empower independent cultural organisations in the Arab region.
Mimeta is supporting both Visa for Music and the Abbara program.
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Ettijahat-Independent Culture is currently organizing the MINA: Artistic Ports and Passages, which aims to celebrate the work of Syrian artists in Syria and neighboring countries. The art Forum will be held in Beirut from November 30 to December 3, 2017. It will include theatrical, cinematic, visual and musical performances by a number of art projects that have received support from the Laboratory of Arts programme –one of Ettijahat's programmes carried out in partnership with the Goethe Institute.
By Ettijahat
The MINA Forum is a space dedicated to highlight the reality of new artistic practices of Syrian artists who come to present their new works from Syria, Lebanon, Germany and France.
In addition to art performances, and in the presence and the participation of a number of experts, specialists and cultural actors, the Forum presents to its audience a series of open and closed seminars that address the issues of today's artistic practice in the Arab world.
The Forum also includes presentations of artistic projects still in progress by Syrian artists of various specialties, as well as the launching of a book entitled Now Then: Testimonials on Independent Syrian Cultural Work, which include testimonials by more than 80 artists and cultural actors from Syria and the world in cooperation with Mamdouh Adwan Publishing House.
The detailed program of the MINA Forum will be issued in Arabic and English during November.
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Bobi Wine
""Art is the highest form of human intelligense. Our people are slowly embracing that, and art is connecting people". From intervju in "Voices"
It is not often that I meet cultural activists who enter the political system, as Bobi Wine has done with his place in parliament. Usually they stand outside, and see politics as the same affair as Bobi Wine now has experienced from inside. Cultural activists are massively involved in civil society, from where they work for democratization of both society and the political system. The Arab Spring in 2011 is the great example of the group's mobilization power. In Uganda, a similar mobilization is taking place right now. The question here is whether the president stops the music or the music stops him.
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As part of the program of artistic residencies, association L'Art Rue launches a call for applications for the year 2018. Are you a musician, dancer, visual artist, designer, photographer, circus artist, comedian or director, and live in Tunisia? Are you interested in public space and working with people?
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Det er ikke ofte i mitt virke at jeg møter kulturaksjonister som går inn i det politiske systemet, slik Bobi Wine har gjort med sin plass i parlamentet. Vanligvis står de utenfor, og ser politikken som den affæren Bobi Wine nå har fått oppleve innenifra. Kulturaksjonistene er massivt tilstede i samfunnet, hvor de arbeider for demokratisering av både kunsten og det politiske systemet. Den arabiske våren i 2011 er det store eksempelet på gruppens mobiliseringskraft. I Uganda foregår en lignende mobilisering akkurat nå. Spørsmålet her er altså om presidenten stopper musikken eller musikken stopper ham.
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Art Map launched in Rwanda
by director of Ishyo Arts Center, Carole Karamera
Local artists have launched the I Art Rwanda Map, a platform that allows artists to present their art and communicate directly with art lovers inside and outside the country. The site, which was launched on Thursday, already has over 6,000 registered artists, and contains several areas and categories that will help art lovers find the kind of artists they need.
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Projects selected for fifth edition of the Syrian "Research: To strengthen the Culture of Knowledge"
"Research: To Strengthen Culture of Knowledge programme seeks to encourage Syrian researchers in Syria and abroad to prepare objective research papers that are committed to the principles of scientific research in terms of their design, documentation and editing when covering all matters relating to the Syrian issue. Ettijahat's team is keeping track of the researchers' work at all stages and helps them complete their work to meet the publishing requirements. The programme is proud that it has allowed over the past five years a rare opportunity for dozens of male and female researchers to receive the needed training, which has yielded research papers that enrich our knowledge of Syrian society, its cultural heritage and living culture."
Mr. Farouk Mardam Bey, member of the SC panel under the programme's fifth edition.
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I helgen var jeg i Kampala i Uganda for å lansere en bok under kulturfestivalen Bayimba. I boken intervjues femtito ledende personer innenfor kultursektoren i landet. En av dem er Bobi Wine. Wine er en av de mest populære musikerne i landet, og som uavhengig kandidat feide Wine inn i parlamentet i juli år, med en oppslutning på 75 prosent av stemmekretsen. Han er også kalt Ghetto-kongen. Politisk er han på den Museveni-kritiske siden, og er en markert motstander mot å oppheve presidentembetets øvre aldersgrense i grunnloven. I går, onsdag, ble han arrestert i parlamentet.
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