ARTwatch aims to secure freedom of creative expression.
ARTerial Networks project ARTwatch was launched last year. It aims to monitor the practice and constraints regarding freedom of creative expression in every African country, including the various forms of censorship that prevail in each country. While other barometers already exist to measure media freedom, there is no measure of freedom of creative expression.
ARTwatch has already collected information in 41 out of the 55 countries in Africa. Researches show that censorship is carried through by governments, fundamentalists, state security and the police. One of the aims of the project is to educate artists to collaborate and organize themselves both at the national and international levels, like unions, in order to secure freedom of creative expression. Mike van Graan from ARTerial Network expresses a fear for the so-called brain drain in Africa, implying that lots of artists are emigrating to Paris, London and New York, where they are more likely to practice their art freely to make a living out of it.
ARTwatch will participate in “All that is banned is desired”- the first ever world conference on artistic freedom and freedom of expression for artists around the world. The conference will take place in Oslo, Norway, 25-26 October 2012.
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