The African Arts Institute’s vision is for a vibrant, dynamic and sustainable African creative sector that contributes to development, human rights and democracy on the continent, and projects African aesthetics and intellectual content into the international arena. It is envisaged that the African Arts Institute (AFAI) will be linked eventually to a network of similar institutes or centres on the
continent (either existing ones, or ones that AFAI will assist in bringing into being), at least one per continental region. The core focus of the African Arts Institute is two-fold:
1. building capacity within the African creative sector and
2. building local and regional markets for African creative goods, services and artists’ brands
Priorities
The five priority areas of activity for AFAI are:
1. Cultural Governance and Leadership: Improving governance within Africa’s creative sector which includes developing the leadership of civil society organisations (NGOs, networks, etc) and government agencies active in the sector, as well as building and helping to coordinate continental networks.
2. Building regional markets: Implementing UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions by building South African markets for African artists and their creative goods and services (films, literature, music, festivals, design, theatre, dance, craft, etc)
3. Research and theory development: Research, Information gathering and distribution and development of cultural policies and theory, particularly that which is rooted in culture and development
4. Human rights and democracy: Promoting democracy, freedom of expression and human rights through the arts through public art initiatives, blogs, articles and talks on relevant subjects and making the arts accessible to marginalised communities
5. Empowering artists: working against xenophobia and helping to integrate artists from the African diaspora living in South Africa into the country’s cultural mainstream
