Arts Connect Africa 3rd Annual Meeting focus:
Bring together creative minds to develop innovative solutions to global issues by advocating arts as means of achieving sustainable growth and infrastructure across the African continent.
Workflow proposal:
The ACA board has identified a series of topics that are potentially of interest for ACA members as means of increasing collaborations among us, generating business opportunities and positively impacting our communities. We propose to address each topic divided into sessions to listen to previous or ongoing experiences and leave room for debate and exchange of ideas. We propose to develop our agenda in 3 consecutive days, to have room for keeping the conversation flowing during the whole Visa For Music events. We will encourage members to select a project or a partner they will like to collaborate with by the end of the conference. This of course will not be mandatory, but it will help us start building the community we envision for the ACA network.
Topics to discuss:
- Capacity building: think global, act local.
- Cultural exchanges: South-North + South-South connections.
- Preservation of cultural heritage: sharing African knowledge to the rest of the world.
- Technology adoption: from platforms and media to artificial intelligence.
The goals for the meeting will be:
- To better understand International Cultural Cooperation Models in Africa and across continents, leading to sharing of best, successful practices.
- To discuss ways to help members grow their businesses and support their communities through shared collaboration, consultation and education projects.
- To build a brain trust of experienced professionals to address impediments to mobility, access to funding, and barriers to economic development through culture.
- To discuss how to educate the next generation of cultural arts leaders through mentorship and real life experience.
- To clarify the requirements for Membership in CCA.
- To identify priorities, outline next steps and envision the future for ACA in 2025 and beyond.
AGENDA IN DETAIL:
DAY 1: Wednesday Nov 20
- 7 pm: Evening welcome reception at hotel bar (Le Pietri Urban Hotel).
DAY 2: Thursday Nov 21 Pergola Room in the Pietri Hotel 10-5pm
Introducing ACA and 3rd Annual Meeting (10 minutes).
- Welcome by ACA board: setting the goals and work flow of the 3rd ACA meeting. Our mission: Education, Economic Development, Cultural Exchange, Professional Development.
Initial round of -speed- introductions (50 minutes)
Participants will be asked to introduce themselves in 2 minutes, highlighting:
- City / country of origin and where main activities are developed.
- What are their visions or expectations of the 3rd ACA meeting and how does the network of their dreams look like?
Sessions:
After initial introductions, we would like to start the action! The rest of the day we will be discussing each topic for about an hour with the following structure:
Session 1: Capacity building: think global, act local.
- Who has existing internship or training programs? How can we build on existing models? How do we fund these?
- How can we empower local populations (women, young and/or traditionally excluded populations) through workshops to acquire and develop employable skills?
- Local artists: provide information for artists to be able to self promote their music and develop their live performance career
- Local communities in general: provide courses to develop capacities related with the creative economy (Photo, Video, Recording, Production, Etc.)
LUNCH: food will be served at the Petri Hotel Restaurant for ACA participants.
Session 2: foster international cultural exchanges (South-North, South-South)
- What are your own previous or ongoing experiences?
- Who can host artistic residencies and how do we finance them?
- What festivals are open to receive international programming?
- What are touring circuits possibilities?
Session 3: preservation of cultural heritage.
- What digital archives already exist? How can we use this and share it with other parts of the world? Virtual cultural exchange.
- What education, recording, exchange projects currently exist and how can we expand these models. Invest in cultural education.
- How can we be reciprocal with the musicians’ communities and develop capacity building activities for them? How can we also address other social or economic issues?
DAY 3: Friday Nov 22
12 – 13:30 hrs: Inclusion and Diversity in the Music Industry: Women’s Central Role in Empowerment and Community Development
- We invite you to be part of the panel moderated by Katherine McVicker as part of the official program of VFM.
Lunch together: if you are up to, we would like to have lunch
Open session (60 minutes) for anyone attending VFM 3 to 4 pm at the Pergola Room in Pietri Hotel
- ACA memberships – criteria and process to become a member.
- Networks and the use of technologies: introducing the ACA and the CCLA platforms.
ACA Session: 4 to 5 pm. Technology adoption: from platforms and media to artificial intelligence.
- Introducing and onboarding the ACA platform
- Introducing CCLA and its platform
- Open discussion:
- How can we better use technologies for the purpose of the networks?
- What can we dream about the use of technologies for the future of our work?
DAY 4: Saturday Nov 23 (3 to 5 pm)
Conclusions and Summary of the ACA meeting (2 hrs)
Share your feedback, express ideas and next steps for the ACA network.
In this last afternoon session, participants will:
- Wrap up ideas of previous discussions and determine the areas we want to focus on to build ACA and CCLA.
- Establish the working committees: finance and development, membership, education, cultural exchange.
