By Iminza Keboge
Published August 10, 2016
A residency programme designed to support and celebrate the achievements of provocative and innovative artists who are stretching the boundaries of their artistic practice invites applications.
The initiative, known as Artists In Residency (AIR) and administered by Cape Town (South Africa)-based Africa Centre, is seeking applications from high calibre African artists before September 30, 2016.
The residencies are available to composers, fiction and non-fiction writers, playwrights, poets, video/filmmakers, curators, visual and performance artists as well as artists of other forms whose work is inspired by or relates to global or social issues and promotes the well-being of humankind.
AIR partners select an artist from a short list provided by Africa Centre, for one of their 2017 or 2018 residencies. Each residency offers a distinct structure, set of requirements and duration. The costs of the residency and round-trip airfare are included in each residency award made.
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Africa Centre says it conducts AIR due to provide opportunities to artists in Africa that has few residency programmes, whose artists are often not well known in contemporary art circles throughout the world, or whose artists are confronted with limited sources of funding to support the costs of getting to the residency should they be accepted.
“These factors deny the global artist in residency community access to the many exceptional African artists practising on the continent, and in turn denies these artists the unique growth opportunity that residencies afford,” Africa Centre says.
AIR partners with existing artist in residency programmes around the globe to award exceptional African artists with the opportunity to take up a short-term residency to focus on consolidating their work and developing new projects. Each residency partner selects one artist from a shortlist provided by the Africa Centre, following a continent-wide call for submissions. The costs of the residency and a round-trip airfare are included in each award. The residencies are available to all forms of artistic expression and types of artists, but each residency differs in terms of duration, structure and requirements.
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Africa Centre says that AIR has funded 39 African artists to attend residencies in Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the USA since its inception in 2011.
Queries on any aspect of the programme can be directed to airsubmissions@africacentre.net.
