What is Mimeta looking for?
C-Stunners by Cyrus Kabiru (art glasses) and Sylvia Gichia (Photo)
The universal cultural rights are not to protect a culture, but to protect the individual who wants to enhance, modify or destroy it by her aesthetic or intellectual capability.
Our aim is to that people have their right to free creative expressions created on independent terms, in support of article 27 of the Universal Human Rights Declaration.
Background:
Activists from the arts sector have in recent years demonstrated their ability to address issues of artistic freedom and democratic change, from Cape Town to Cairo. The notion of the “creative class” has nourished the self esteem, and we see that “the class” is an important part of new civil society structures that arises in post dictatorships.
Evident in this direction is also that the sector is increasingly recognized for their contributions to job creation and economic development, and that many of the sectors´ representatives are acclaimed secular role models to the public.
Another tendency is that their representatives more frequently take part in international arts events and international networks and multilateral forums which addresses human rights, culture policy and formulation of development issues. One response from the international community is the ongoing mapping of artistic freedom by the UN Human rights council and Unesco. Another need is to place artistic expressions within the the global Freedom of Expressions movement.
Vision:
Our vision is that people have their right to free creative expressions. It implies that artists and creators are able to chose what to produce and platforms to decide on what to present.
Impact:
Mimeta contributes to processes that give artists and organizers an opportunity to influence their framework conditions, and we support our partners on political advocacy, platform development and economic sustainability. We are specifically searching:
Initiatives that give artists, producers and artistic works better protection against abuse, detention and censorship.
Initiatives that contribute to processes and tools that give artists and producers their democratic opportunity to influence the free exercising of their rights, mostly through culture policy processes and other broader advocacy initiatives.
Initiatives that strengthen independent platforms (venues, festivals, spaces etc) providing free, artistic expressions.
The service providers to the arts:
We give priority to those organizations that work on behalf of the arts, as service providers, to improve the sectors´ position on rights issues, in political and legal matters, the professionalism, the distribution of the arts and the sustainability of the sector. We are not tied to disciplines.
These organizations, the service providers to the arts, are rare in most of our geographic intervention areas, but still needed for an efficient sector development. Thus Mimeta concentrate its resources on the development of this capability, in organizational matters, allocation of tasks, funding and re-granting instruments. It is needed to support both the service providing structures (meaning actual organizations) and the development of the services (eg. how to run a culture policy process).
Rationale:
A sustainable society secures and fosters the moral and material interests of its cultural production and expressions. These interests constitute a significant part of every nation’s assets and may represent a major contribution to development, to human rights and democracy, and to the eradication of poverty.
Geography:
Mimeta works in Africa, Asia and South-America – with concentration on MENA and Sub-Sahara Africa.
Contact:
If you would like to approach Mimeta for a partnership, we ask you to leave initial information in the form below.
Partner database
At Mimeta, we strive to ensure that our programs are tailored to meet the diverse needs of organizations. To achieve this, we gather comprehensive information about our partners to better understand their governance structure, management practices, organizational capabilities, risk profiles, and more.
