Building Beyond is a learning structure where artists come together with a group of peers to reflect on their practice, activate it within their local context, and collectively assemble ideas and universalities from across the continent – aimed at engaging with the built environment as an interpretive and alterable world.
They support practices that engage with the relational worlds of communities and public space in this setting. They seek to foster conversations on how resilience, humanity, and creativity in our urban environments can create opportunities for communally imagined realities in the city.
The program brings together 12 experienced creatives (± 7-15 years of relevant professional experience) working across diverse mediums, approaches, and interpretations of the mentorship’s overarching theme. Supported by four mentors, this Building Beyond cohort will come together over the course of a year to foster conversation, collaboration, and equal exchange; to support each participant in their own individual practice; and facilitate exchanges between the cohort, its growing network, and relevant external practitioners.
Building Beyond consists of various online interactive formats, such as peer group sessions, and guest speaker sessions. They will also meet in person twice within the program year in the form of ‘Lab Weeks’ (six-day intensive mentoring gatherings)—one in the African continent, and one in the Netherlands. The program carries two group projects for the cohort, namely: a public-facing event opportunity, and a collective publication.
Award
Each participant receives an award of €10,000 and guidance from mentors to work on the concept for a body of work that is outlined in their application.
Eligibility
With this open call, they invite applications from individual, experienced artists and cultural practitioners who:
Are from, live and work in the eligible countries: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Chad, South Africa, or South-Sudan.
Are artists, cultural practitioners, or creatives whose individual practice relates to architecture, design, spatial practice, public space, and urban communities? When referring to artists and cultural practitioners they mean people who have an individual artistic practice. They hold a broad definition of art and culture and appreciate interdisciplinary practices. Individuals who are arts managers, facilitators, academic researchers, or others, without an individual artistic practice, do not fall under this category, and as such are not eligible to apply.
Have ±7-15 years of relevant professional experience. The Mentorship Award is meant only for individual artists who, regardless of age, meet the professional experience criteria, counting from the date they started engaging in professional artistic practice to the date of submitting their application.
Deadline: May 14, 2024
