Got talent, will travel, but stuck at the bottom of Africa?
That itchy, wintery, wanna-go-somewhere-new feeling is not just seasonal. At some point, most creative professionals yearn for and benefit from exposure to completely new settings and creative communities. Best selling international author, Elif Batuman, explained it aptly in The Guardian. “Moving abroad lets you keep, in some degree, an aesthetic of bewilderment.”
This has made the international artist-in-residency culture a healthy and happening one, which /A Word Of Art recently emphasised. However getting abroad from Africa is not as easy.
Apart from mortgaging a house (if you have one), most creative South Africans can’t afford the opportunity their talent demands. Africa Centre* is aware of this, and decided to address the issue actively. In partnership with artist in residency programmes in Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland, Netherlands, Turkey and the United States of America, they’ve launched AIR – Artists In Residency programme.
Africa Centre is looking for “artists from Africa who are provocative, innovative, relevant and highly engaged with both social issues and their art forms.” If you think you are this, you can submit your work for approval for an all-expenses paid artist’s residency programme abroad in 2011 or 2012.
Hurry! You only have till the 01 June 2011! Submit today.
*The Africa Centre is a keen supporter of the arts in Cape Town. They’re known for key projects Infecting The City Performing Arts Festival, Badilisha Poetry Exchange, Pan African Space Station, SPARCK, Spier Contemporary, Talking Heads and WikiAfrica.
