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

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.

Within the international development context, the project will impact on those communities identified in the reports and policies highlighted in the Case for Support. These are i) members of visual art communities in East Africa whose career opportunities and livelihoods will be enhanced ii) organisations and platforms supporting artists working in society and encouraging greater public engagement with the visual arts.
The project therefore aims to impact initially on individuals and on organisations. These impacts will in turn develop capacity within the creative industries, and through this pathway the project offers the potential for greater public benefit. Government policy and official reports confirm that the creative industries will have an increasingly important profile within the EAC over the next two decades. Their development is a priority both for their potential for positive economic impact on individual livelihoods but also for their capacity to bring less quantifiable benefits: to 'promote creativity, optimise skills and human resources...and express messages that foster understanding and peace' (Uganda National Culture Policy 2005).
Activities have been collaboratively designed to impact on those visual art professionals and arts organisations who engage directly with project activities; on other members of the visual art community in East Africa, and on stakeholders in the creative industries. There will be impacts on the public who engage with project outputs such or who consume art.
The focus is on pragmatic approaches, impacting on visual art professionals' writing skills, including those which will enhance artists' capacity for entrepreneurship with an emphasis on how these new skills can promote sustainable careers, including capacity for freelance work. These newly acquired skills will enhance art professionals' capacity to access opportunities and afford them greater visibility, building confidence, reputations and affording better market opportunities. The artists' mentoring programme will enable emerging East African writers to gain from the expertise of international and African mentors, offering them opportunities to publish their work in the public realm, developing a new cohort of East African art writers.
Partner Visual arts organisations will benefit through a deepened relationship with their stakeholders: through new knowledge and experience they gain about the value and use of online toolkits, mentoring and art publishing and an enhanced understanding of the relevance and importance of art critique within a developed art ecology. The project therefore contributes to their capacity to deliver their core objectives.
The published texts will give audiences an opportunity to engage with more developed discourses about contemporary art, stimulating future interest in and appreciation of the visual arts and their significance within the cultural economy in East African society.
Through making more widely visible and understood the work of artists and art writers, and by raising their profiles, the project will positively impact on the status of artists and writers within their communities, improving stakeholder perceptions of the role and value of creative practitioners. Within a political context where recognition of the value of growing the creative economy has been demonstrated through measures such as the Creative and Cultural Industries Bill (2015), but where there is still little evidence of governments providing significant support, the impacts which will derive from this project are vital.
This impacts of this project will be sustained in tangible ways: the continuing use of the toolkit on our Project Partner's website will help artists sustain their livelihoods, continuing art dialogues in future editions of Nairobi Contemporary will build capacity for visual art and aspiring visual art professionals will better understand how the sector can offer viable careers.