Youth-led Cultural & Civic Initiatives

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.

COVID-19 - When resilience matters the most

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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Syrian research: To Strengthen the Culture of Knowledge:

Ettijahat has published a series of short interviews with a group of grantees under the sixth edition of Research: To Strengthen Culture of Knowledge. Hinad Alshuhuf talks about his paper Patriarchal Authority in the Cultural Heritage of Jabal al-Arab.

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.

See Ettijahat

Visa for Music, an indispensable market platform for music industry

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.

Celebrate the work of Syrian artists in Syria and neighboring countries!

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.