Pan African Network of artists, cultural activists celebrates fifth anniversary

The Pan African Network of artists, cultural activists, creative enterprises and others engaged in the African creative sector (Arterial Network) on Wednesday commemorated the fifth anniversary of revitalising Africa’s Cultural Assets.

The network over the past five years has undergone through a period of exciting and rapid growth, now ready to use the next few years to consolidate formation of the national chapters across the continent, Mr Mike Van Graan, Arterial Network Secretary General stated.

In a statement issued in Accra copied to the Ghana News Agency to mark the day said, “These chapters will be the primary means to change the working conditions and to deliver real and substantial benefits to artists on the ground”.

Arterial Network is a civil society network owned, directed and managed by African creative practitioners, arts administrators and cultural entrepreneurs.

Mr Van Graan said that while the creative sector should use the occasion to celebrate the growth and impact of Arterial Network, they should also renew their commitment to meeting the numerous challenges that still faced the sector in its quest to develop the arts in their own right.

He tasked creative activists to contribute to the elimination of poverty, to human rights and to democracy on the continent.

“I would like to encourage our members, staff and leadership to continue to take ownership of Arterial Network as this is the vehicle that we have created to advance and defend our interests.

“And I would like most sincerely to thank our international and local partners who have worked with us in helping to make our vision a reality,” he said.

Arterial Network, formed in 2007 to address lack of information, poor government policy and institutional frameworks, weak civil society structures, the marginalisation of artists and the arts.

It also deals with the absence of funding and a dearth of leadership as among the key challenges confronting the African creative sector.

Arterial Network National Chapters were tasked to deepen their relations with their respective governments, while arts practitioners, managers and all those who are involved in and sought to make their living within the African creative sector, take responsibility for themselves and their livelihood.

The Network is also mandated to develop a cultural policy template for countries to apply to their respective conditions, as is being done in Egypt currently with the formulation of their post-Mubarak cultural policy.

In addition, it train leaders and build the capacity activists through toolkits in project management, fundraising, advocacy and arts marketing; undertake research and preparing policy positions on the creative economy, culture and development and cultural diversity from African perspectives.

The Network over the past five years hosted continental competitions in playwriting and poetry to identify new talent and project African creative works into the international arena.

It continued to build civil society structures in more than 30 African countries to advance the interests of the creative sector within those countries, and mapping the state of freedom of creative expression across the continent.

The Network with the support of international partners such as DOEN Foundation, HIVOS, Mimeta Foundation, European Union, Africalia, Commonwealth Foundation, Goethe Institute and British Council as well as Spier, a South African company providing support to its continental secretariat in Cape Town, Arterial Network has been able to respond to many of the challenges identified at its founding conference.