New Engagements to enhance artists' livelihoods in East Africa: Art; Writing; Work

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This impact and engagement project focusses on practical interventions that will support artists living and working in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda build sustainable livelihoods and help build capacity in the creative industries in in East Africa, an international development priority. It will do this through engagements that respond to the needs, ambitions and priorities of visual art professionals as stated by themselves, the local organisations that support them and set out in government policy and development reports on the creative economy in East Africa commissioned by the British Council. The planned engagements and impacts have been developed through the activities of the AHRC-GCRF funded research network 'Networking New Opportunities for Artists in East Africa' which draws together visual art professionals from diverse backgrounds in East Africa, including artists and art collectives living and working in deprived areas, to collaboratively scope interventions that will support the sustainable development of their livelihoods. The network's activities focus on identifying pragmatic approaches to shared problems, practical initiatives that will impact directly on real life experiences and and make definable contributions to building capacity for visual art activity in the creative economy, thus working towards EAC and international development goals.Extended evidence-gathering has identified that a fundamental constraint to addressing many of the challenges artists face is a deficit in 'art writing' skills. This deficit is apparent at all levels in the visual art ecology and impacts in variety of ways, from a lack of confidence in preparing basic written material for self-promotion which can exclude or disadvantage many artists when trying to access professional opportunities, to the absence of a shared body of developed artistic critique. Not only does this inhibit artistic production, but it also constrains the role and capacity of the visual arts within the cultural economy. Balanced against this, new platforms including a new art magazine are struggling to emerge, and the enthusiasm, energy and demand for practical initiatives to assist development of artistic writing is evidence that the emergent generation of artistic writers and critics who are already identifying themselves as key future players in the creative economy, will respond enthusiastically to opportunities offered to assist their professional development and make their voices heard.The project team: arts organisation 32 Degrees East, the British Council in East Africa, the BIEA, art publications Nairobi Contemporary, Art Monthly, and Newcastle University have worked collaboratively to develop plans for a set of engagements that will support specific types of art writing skills, equipping members of the visual art community with the key skills, knowledge and experience which are currently lacking and which will will assist them in the development of sustainable livelihoods.The project develops four related strands: the development of a new art writing toolkit for essential promotional material; a pilot project developing entrepreneurial and business skills in artists through reflective writing, and an innovative approach to nurturing emergent critical voices in the visual arts, fostering a new generation of artistic writers and providing them a public platform by supporting, in a sustainable way, a new magazine for art writing. Structured around an activity programme that includes workshops, mentoring and the publication of two editions of the art magazine, the project develops its impacts within a context where the importance of supporting artists and growing the creative economy has been recognised through measures such as the passing of the Creative and Cultural Industries Bill (2015), but where government support remains minimal. The impacts that will derive from this project are therefore urgent and vital.