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Overview of culture and development programme
Background
Since the end of the 1990’s the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Nairobi (RNE) has been financially supporting the arts and culture sector in Kenya. In 2003 an official Culture and Development programme started. The programme is based on the general policy on Culture and Development of the Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands. This policy was further strengthened on 30 juni 2007, when the minister signed the agreement of Schokland. It stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to intensify its policy on culture and development, both in terms of priority and resources.
The specific policy framework for Kenya as agreed in 2005:
Country-specific policy guidelines of C&D
Operational goals:
a. Through brokering and financial support, create space in Kenyan society for contemporary cultural expressions and promote exchange and dialogue. b. In connection with this space, create broad public interest for Kenyan culture: national (critical cultural mass), regional and international interest. c. Support capacity building: for improved management of local organisations and artists. Culture & Development Programme in Kenya
I. Past Activities
Between 1998 and 2002, there was a RNE Local Culture Fund, which financed among others Nairobits, Kuona Trust and the Puppetry Festival. From 2003, the Culture and Development programme started and, together with the Small Projects Fund, supported many organisations. The average volume of assistance amounted to approx. Euro 250.000 per year, culminating to a total amount of approx. Euro 1.600.000 spent over the period 2003-2008. Sarakasi Trust is the main beneficiary of the Culture and Development programme (see II. Current activities, a. Sarakasi Trust)
Beneficiaries of small projects (up to 25.000 Euro) were:
Prince Claus Prices A special category of activities of the Royal Netherlands Embassy are the events organised around the Prince Claus Prices, awarded to individuals or organisations who have accomplished exceptional achievements in the field of culture and development. Mathare Youth and Sports Association (MYSA) (2004), dancer Opiyo Okach (2005), publisher Henry Chakava (2006) and cartoonist GADO (2007).
II. Current activities
Large projects within the Culture and Development programme
a. Sarakasi Trust Sarakasi Trust is a performing arts development organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. The organization has been working in the field of Culture for Development since its establishment in 2001 and has grown to be one of the leading organizations in culture and the performing arts in Eastern Africa. The Trust has always been committed to promoting public awareness, appreciation and access to acrobatics, music and dance. “Sarakasi” is the Kiswahili word for Circus or Acrobatics. Sarakasi hired office and training space from 2003 to 2008 at The GoDown Art Centre in the Industrial area, Nairobi. Having been closely involved with the launch of The GoDown, Sarakasi became a victim of its growing success by outgrowing the available space for its own rapidly growing training programme. The need for a permanent rehearsal space for up to 80 performers each day and the need for a bigger office space led Sarakasi to explore options for expansion. In 2006 Sarakasi acquired and renovated a magnificent building – the Sarakasi Dome, along Ngara Road - to house its lively acrobatics, music and dance training and performance programs as well as the institutional activities of the Trust. It opened its doors end of May 2008.
The organization also facilitates the contracts of hundreds of performers overseas in its international contracts and exchanges program which not only provides vital income for the artists but also provides training, exposure and a broader world view to the artists in the program. The organization organised several big concerts and already twice a successful edition of what now seems one of the largest music events in the region – the Sawa Sawa Festival - a permanent fixture of the Kenyan cultural calendar.
Sarakasi also facilitates The Hospital Project through which various artists visit children in Nairobi’s most overcrowded hospital facilities and engage the children in creative play. The Trust aims to develop contemporary choreographic creation and supports the presentation and diffusion of performance work; supports training research and innovation in acrobatics, music, dance and theatre; fosters cultural exchange and cross disciplinary collaboration in the arts; and supports the infrastructure for the development of acrobatics, music, dance, etc. Sarakasi aims to promote its objectives in East Africa and beyond and in this way, to further the social, economic and cultural development of society. Sarakasi Trust is a performing arts development Trust that is run on a non-profit basis.
Descriptive historical overview including some milestones: 2000, Dec. : First Cultural Exchange - Black Jambo Acrobats to Netherlands 2001, Dec. : Formal establishment of Sarakasi Trust 2002 : Establishment of Sarakasi training program 2003 : Establishment of Sarakasi Office at Go-Down Arts Centre 2005, April : Establishment of SawaSawa record label 2006, Feb. : North Sea Jazz Salutes Nairobi-Festival 2007, Jan. : Mundial, JMI and Umoja partnerships 2007, June : Sawa Sawa Festival 2007, Dec. : Ghetto Radio on air 2008, May : Opening of Sarakasi Dome and Sawa Sawa Festival
The Sarakasi Training program has been operational since 2001.
b. Godown Arts Centre The Godown Arts Centre was established in 2004 in the Industrial Area in Nairobi and has become a focal point for artistic freedom, expression and production. The Go-Down’s mission is to foster independent artists across multiple art-forms, expands receptive audiences, and advances the cultural sector. Objectives of Programming 1. To create and establish a schedule for developing a framework for weekly, monthly & annual programming of events and activities from both internal and external visual and performing arts groups. 2. To develop outreach programmes, working in partnership with other local and international performing and visual arts groups. 3. To establish collaborative linkages with other cultural arts spaces and organisations around the world for exchange of programming information, resources and lessons learned. 4. To work with other similar interest organisations and to continue developing, hosting and producing significant regional and international events which establish the GoDown as a regional and international hub for the performing and visual arts. 5. To establish a dynamic and diverse community of user groups of the Centre who shares its vision and values and contributes to its mission. To meet its strategic objectives and goals, the GoDown has developed a programming framework around the concept of a “Programming Series” under particular themes. The expected outcomes are: · A wide variety of performing and visual art forms including dance, theatre, music, plastic arts and media arts will be included within the programming structure. · The programming framework will inspire, motivate and build capacity of local and East African artists and their groups to engage and pursue excellence in the arts. · The framework will contribute to the building, development and enhancement of experimental, innovative, diverse and relevant cultural art forms in Kenya.
The GoDown is committed to creating value in the arts, building audiences and making arts and culture largely accessible. An important aspect of the programming which supports this objective is outreach. Through its 3 year development phase, the GoDown made several performance and visual arts projects in various locations including slum areas, city parks, schools, community centres, shopping malls with the aim of introducing and engaging a new audience to diverse cultural art forms. Through this, the GoDown has recognised the potential of using this avenue as a way of keep its work relevant to its communities and engaging a broader, non-traditional audience base. The various outreach activities have also facilitated the creation and development of important partnerships with like-minded organisations based on shared benefits, mutual respect and complementary goals. The Arts Centre aims to continue and expand these outreach projects as it builds and grows strategic partnerships.
Developing audiences for the arts in general, and the GoDown in particular, envisages a wide range of outcomes including · increased frequency of engagement by existing audiences, · attracting first timers and · broadening the range of people who attend, engage and participate in the arts. Although crucial to delivering financial objectives (through increased earned incomes), effective audience development will also ensure that the GoDown continues to be relevant to all the different communities of interest it serves. With audience-focused programming the Arts Centre aims at developing a relationship between art and audience that is dynamic, meaningful and respectful – reaping long-term benefits for the GoDown, the artist, and the audience. The GoDown has steadily gained a reputation of being an important, multi-disciplinary space for the development in the arts in East Africa, staging unique, quality performances and exhibitions. The centre has depended heavily on word-of-mouth publicity and promotion. To keep the performances and events at the centre accessible to a broad audience, The GoDown will endeavour to keep costs of tickets low, without compromising on quality. It is anticipated that tickets will be sold at an average of Ksh. 300 (Euros 3.5) only per performance.
Small projects (up to 25.000 Euro):
c. Art Canvas This project will allow Art Canvas to prepare for a theatre tour through East Africa. The idea for the tour is based on the performance of a truly east african theatre productions Ms. Mumbi Kaigwa wrote and performed in Europe. Based on this production and her experience with interactive theatre with young actors, she wrote an other piece with involvement of young actors and developed a workshop idea to train young actors and teach them skills to engage with a public and train others to use acting as a skill to create debate. Kaigwa workls with local Kenyan and Tanzanian actors and involves local actors if on a tour as extra participants in the show to get a local element in it. Both shows are performed in mainly informal settings where people who normally do not get the option to look at theatre are not only seeing a pice performed by real actors, but are challenged to discuss the issues brought forward in the piece and relate about their feelings and ideas about it. This way a discussion is starting on history and future of communities and the role people have in this themselves. The actors are, through the workshop, all trained in the principals of “entering and exiting communities” so the discussion will have a focussed start and exit and won’t leave communities with an open end. The pieces Kaigwa wrote for this tour are raising issues of historical importance for East Africa and try to create engagement with normal people with important issues for their future such as issues of culture and identity. The perfomances Arts Canvas will undertake have the capacity to shift perceptions and to deliver important messages of social change.
The tour will go to Tanzania, Uganda and Kenia. The focus is on performing in informal situations, something Arts Canvas tried already in various Nairobi settlements such as Kibera, Madera and Dandora. Both performaces are in Kiswahili.
The fact that Kaigwa and Arts Canvas undertake this tour will lead to: -attention for the arts as a possible lever in societal issues - shift perceptions on possible social change and the responsibility and possibilities people have to take these on; - awareness and experience for young people with the arts (as no arts are teached any longer in the Kenyan school system); - sustainability of the used knowledge and skills in performing art..
While preparing for a cross-regional and cross-generational tour of two plays they will:
d. Kwani Trust This project will create the opportunity for Kwani to re-structure their organization so they can be a sustainable pillar in the Kenyan cultural landscape.
Kwani Trust is a Kenyan based literary network established in January 2003. Since the start Kwani has
Kwani undertakes all these activities to achieve some key results:
In 2007, after these first five years as a young organisation, Kwani started to look towards the future. They undertook a strategic process to develop into a mature organisation that would be able to reamin in the Kenyan cultural landscape in a sustainable way. With staff and board Kwani developed and started implementing their strategic plan. They changed their finiancial and editorial policies, developed new relationships with local, and international partners. In the coming years they will deepen and expand these contacts (for example with the WAPI – British Arts Council, Storymoja, a local publishing firm, Frankfurter Book Fair (which they attended in 2008), Farafina Magazine in Lagos).
To finalize the process of change Kwani needs to focus now on the implementation of their mission into goals and link them clearly to the outputs they produce. This way, from 2009 on Kwani will be able to attract new sources of funding as a professional literary organisation. To make this happen Kwani needs to:
Centre-piece section of Kwani? 05 is the 2007 elections, consisting of avant-garde journalism and testimonials gathered from all corners, on the post-election crisis. To file their stories, the writers creatively engage with the countries political history, critique the present situation and spotlight, through the voices of analysts, from academics to barroom intelectuals and street preachers, the future. Kwani? 05 has been released in December 2008 and succesfull distribution (target 1000 copies sold within 6 monhs) and extensive media coverage are the key outputs.
Dutch organisations active in the field of culture and development:
The Prince Claus Fund is a private fund with the objective of increasing the understanding of cultures and to encourage interaction between culture and development. The Prince Claus Fund supports activities in this field by granting subsidies, awarding prizes and publishing books. In addition, the Fund supports and encourages networks and innovative cultural activities. The people of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are eligible for grants.
Hivos (Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation) is a Dutch organisation for development cooperation that focuses on equal opportunities, democratization and combating poverty. Hivos is one of the six so-called Co-Financing Organisations (MFOs) with which the Dutch government gives shape to its policy of development cooperation. The Dutch Co-Financing Organisations jointly receive 11 to 14 percent of the development cooperation budget to support partner organisations in developing countries.
The Hubert Bals Fund supports innovative and talented film makers from developing countries. The Fund provides modest financial contributions that allow these film makers to develop their plans for films and creative documentaries. Projects that make use of the medium film in their own unique way or that offer a unique look at the country of origin are preferred.
DOEN Foundation fund strives to make the world a livable place. To this end, it provides funding to organizations and projects in the fields of Sustainable Development, Welfare and Culture. DOEN Foundation achieves its objective through the revenues it receives from the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, the Sponsor Lottery and the BankGiro Lottery.
The Dutch Mondriaan Foundation is a culture fund that supports and encourages special projects in the fields of visual arts, design and museums. The fund provides financial support to organizations, companies and government bodies, both nationally and internationally. An amount of EUR 18 million is available every year.
The most important objective of the European Culture Foundation, which is an independent organisation, is to encourage artistic and cultural cooperation in Europe. The programme activities and funds of the ECF are divided into three main pillars: encouraging intercultural dialogue in Europe; encouraging people to take part in society through art; and supporting the cultural sector.
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Prince Claus Fund
info@princeclausfund.nl
