Visiting Arts (UK), in partnership with The Africa Centre, based in South Africa, prepares for the World Cultures Connect ‘Creative Skills’ training programme for arts practitioners from the 11-13 November 2015 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and 17-19 November 2015 in Lilongwe, Malawi. The Creative Skills training programme calls for artists and creative practitioners looking to develop their business to submit an application to join us in November.
The workshop aims to increase artists’ and creative practitioners’ awareness and knowledge of the platforms, tools and opportunities that exist for communicating and promoting their work to local & international audiences and partners. The workshop will be an opportunity for participants to reflect on their current practice and explore:
How to access local and international markets
How to develop professional development, marketing and business plans
The benefits of digital tools, networks and innovations
New opportunities for connecting and collaborating with audiences and partners
Applications for the training are now being invited via an online form (you will find links at the bottom of the page, which closes on Friday 16 October. Successful applicants will be notified on 22 October (Ethiopia) and 26 October (Malawi), and will be required to undertake short submission tasks once selected.
The workshop will be facilitated by an experienced international trainer but will be led by participants’ own experiences, current projects and relevant case studies. Participants will be tasked with developing a professional development plan through the two days. WCC Creative Skills will provide mentoring sessions after the training to track and support progress against the participant’s goals.
Participants will be encouraged to explore the benefits of World Cultures Connect, a new digital hub for international arts and cultural professionals, to Promote their work, Discover new ideas and intelligence, and Connect with new partners, audiences and markets.
Visiting Arts Lead Trainer, Tom Porter, is an experienced business and programme manager who has delivered training on a range of topics from festival management to new media skills for NGOs. Porter served as Head of Arts South Africa for the British Council from 2012-2015 and has delivered training in Moshi, Tanzania and Khartoum, Sudan through his consultancy Bokamoso Limited.
Creative Skills is part of a larger project, Culture Works Connections, connecting artists across Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific to international networks, with additional partners The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Pacific Arts and Culture Foundation in Suva, Fiji. The initiative is funded by the ACP Cultures+ ACP-EU Support Programme to ACP Cultural Sectors, financed by the European Union and implemented by the ACP Group of States, and aims to build a community and lasting network of creative businesses in more than fifteen countries in the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa over three years from 2014-2017.
“One of the reasons why artists are not benefiting from their art is that they do not understand the business side of art. This training is very welcome for it will greatly help Malawian artists to understand the technicalities of how they can take their art to another level and begin to benefit from it.” – Shemu Joyah, Filmmaker
A public event will be held during each training workshop, where participants will be encouraged to discuss their experiences and panellists will be invited to engage with issues of internationalisation.
In August 2016 as a final stage of the programme, there will be an opportunity for selected workshop participants to convene in the UK for a networking week and to showcase their work during the Edinburgh Festivals. The results of the programme will be shared during this time at Visiting Arts annual International Producers’ Breakfast in partnership with Creative Scotland.
For further information, have a look at World Cultures Connect website.
