Nobel Laureates, worldwide organisations and brave voices meet at the World Expression Forum in Lillehammer on 30 and 31 May. (see wexfo.no). In the morning of the 31st - Mimeta and IRIS, The International Coalition of Artist at Risk and International Cities of Refuge (ICORN) welcome you to take part in our side-event, Landscapes of protection for artists at risk. The event will focus on the efforts and challenges in the structures that are set up to protect artists globally.
Norway officially announced its candidacy for the Executive Board of UNESCO for the period 2025-2029. The campaign has the support from all the other Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden.
Considering the situation in and around Ukraine, EMIF has decided to open a Special Funding Round for Urgent Actions within the call “Boosting Fact-Checking Activities in Europe”.
Our good friends in The European Cultural Foundation are deeply involved in the vision of a united Europe where citizens feel proudly European, a place where they can live, express themselves, work and dream freely, in diversity and harmony. It is horrific to witness the vulgarity that now unfolds on Ukrainian soil.
The ECF has organized a solidarity fund for Ukraine that gives priority to independent media, safe cultural spaces and artistic productions acting for a peaceful future for Ukraine. We urge you to support the fund!
World Expression Forum
Arendalsbaserte Mimeta deltar i eiergruppen til i World Expression Forum (WEXFO.no), som nå etableres på Lillehammer. Ambisjonen er at forumet skal bli like viktig for ytringsfriheten som World Economic Forum er for verdensøkonomien.
Mimeta har i femten år arbeidet med kulturelle rettigheter, som inkluderer ytringsrettigheten for kunstnere. I norsk utenrikspolitikk har dette nå fått en prioritet ved fremleggelsen av ytringsfrihetsstrategien for norsk utenrikspolitikk. Denne ble lansert av Eriksen Søreide i sommer.
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
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.
I work carefully and imperceptibly below the surface when it comes to freedom of artistic expression. Deep down I stand by those who want to break it but remind them of realities above the surface. At the same time, the water becomes shallower. This is my duty as a producer.
(Faisal Kiwewa, Bayimba, Uganda.)
Poster A3 for uploading
Poster A3 for uploading
The short version
Mimetas vision is to give GIVE PEOPLE THEIR RIGHT TO FREE CREATIVE EXPRESSIONS, created on free terms and presented by independent institutions.
Our mission is to support and protect those who want to enhance a culture by aesthetic or intellectual means.
By both our vision and mission Mimeta highlight the impact arts have on developing open societies, including the culture itself and the political spfere.
On the strategic level Mimeta is acheiving results by supporting organisations and individuals who work on behalf of the arts, to improve the sectors´ position on rights issues, in political and legal matters, on professionalism and skills, the distribution of the arts and - in the end - the sustainability of the sector.
We call them the service providers to the arts.
For more information on our priorities and strategic initiatives
Nadia Cherif was given the task of evaluating Mimeta's program for cultural sector development (2020-22. It was finalized in november 2023, and gave good input for next stage. Read here
