By Iminza Keboge
Published May 12, 2017
Seven artists from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and South Africa have been selected for the Artists in Residency (AIR) programme.
The artists–Mshai Mwangola (Kenya), Doreen Baingana (Uganda), Leila Abouleta (Sudan), Mark Gevisser and Njabulo Ndebele (South Africa) and Godfried Donkor and Yaba Badoe (Ghana/UK)–who are described as being ‘highly accomplished scholars, artists, thought leaders, policymakers, and practitioners, have been selected for residency the Rockefeller Bellagio Centre Artist Residency Award in Italy as they are reported to share the foundation’s mission of promoting ‘the well-being of humanity around the world’.
While Mwangola, a performance scholar, has been selected for multi-discipline and Baingana, Abouleta, Gevisser and Ndebele for literature, Donkor has been selected for visual arts and Badoe for film.
The residency covers a month’s stay at Bellagio Centre and return air fare to the artist’s country.
RELATED:Uganda Holds Second National Heritage Awards
The Africa Centre of Cape Town that shortlists AIR candidates says the Bellagio Centre picked seven out of its shortlist of 15 ‘extraordinarily talented’ individuals.
Meanwhile various opportunities for Africans in the creative sector, particularly writing and movies, are still open.
While Commonwealth Writers and the School of Advanced Study, University of London, are looking for submissions from writers whose heritage includes the experience of indentured labour by June 5, 2017, the Golden Baobab Prize–Africa’s leading children’s literary award–has invited submissions for the 8th edition of the Golden Baobab Prize, Africa’s leading children’s literary award. by December 1, 2017.
Also of interest to writers is the Short Story Day Africa 2017 Call for Submission whose dealine closes on June 1, 2017.
RELATED:African Arts & Entertainment Diary
On the movie front, Scotland’s 12th Africa in Motion (AiM) invites ‘Filmmakers of African nationality, from the African diaspora or who identify themselves as African’ to submit short films of no longer than 30 minutes for Africa in Motion’s 2017 short film competition. The deadline for entries is July 1, 2017.
Aesthetica Short Film Festival and Film Africa, both of the United Kingdom, have their deadlines for film submission on May 31 and June 30, 2017, respectively.
But before then, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) invite young people around the world aged up to 25 to submit original and creative videos short videos, up to five minutes maximum, focusing on migration, diversity and social inclusion of five minutes maximum in length for consideration in the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival by June 4, 2017.
Also of interest to Africans could be Cinema City International Film Festival of Serbia that is calling for films made with ‘no budget or with a budget of less than US$10000’.
RELATED:13th Africa Movie Academy Awards Gala, Nomination and Sponsors’ Night Dates Set
Regionally, Lola Kenya Screen invites movies of up to 30 minutes–animation, fiction, documentary and experimental–films from Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Congo-Kinshasa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia for its screening, discussion and networking forum that runs in Nairobi every last Monday of the month. Creatively packaged music videos and video games are also accepted.
Detailed information on the opportunities highlighted in this article is available at African Arts & Entertainment Diary that is updated around the clock.
