Deadline: 24 February 2012
Call for Artists and Arts Journalists
Nhimbe Trust in its role as the implementing organisation for the Zimbabwe Creative Civil Society’s Plan of Action for arts and culture (NPAAC); and with support from Prohelvetia, will be running an Arts Advocacy Training Workshop from 24 - 28 April 2012.
Background
In terms of governance, the arts and culture sector falls under several ministries that have no common platform for planning and regular consultation on several issues. These include the formulation, review and implementation of the National Cultural Policy, the development of strategies for the implementation of UNESCO Conventions in the field of culture, and protocols, agreements and charters of the African Union and the SADC.
The arts advocacy programme is meant to stimulate a culture of rights based advocacy and lobbying among artists and arts journalists. It is hoped that the programme will also strengthen networking between artists and journalists. A group of 10 artists and 5 Arts Journalists from Zimbabwe will be trained by a Zimbabwean and South African trainer following the objectives below:
Objectives of the training
Artists
•To build capacity of artists and their associations as they lobby government and advocate for their rights as well as the improvement of their operating environment;
•To strengthen dialogue and interaction between artists, their associations and stakeholders operating in the arts and culture sector;
•To contribute to the advocacy around the revising of outdated pieces of legislation and policies governing arts and culture in the country;
•To encourage the use of information technology (IT) and social media for advocacy purposes.
Journalists
•To expose journalists to issues around creative industries, the creative economy, cultural industries and challenges affecting the arts and culture sector in order for them to cover the sector adequately;
•To strengthen the existing arts journalists network.
Candidates
•Applicants (Artists) should be committed to advocacy and lobbying in the arts and culture sector (members of associations and networks are encouraged to apply);
•A general understanding of the National Cultural Policy, UNESCO Conventions and other international standard setting instruments in the field of arts and culture;
•Journalists should be committed to objective reporting on arts and culture (Members of the Arts Journalist Network have an added advantage).
At the end of the advocacy training workshop arts journalists and artists will be required to:
•write articles and press releases about the training workshop attended
•Join Advocacy Working Groups (AWG); document and publicise outputs from the AWGs
•Take part in media advocacy campaigns on AWG themes
Interested candidates should send a motivation letter and short CV (1page) to joshnyap@nhimbe.org or joshnyap@gmail.com by 24 February 2012.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
For inquiries: joshnyap@nhimbe.org or joshnyap@gmail.com
For submissions: joshnyap@nhimbe.org or joshnyap@gmail.com
Website: http://nhimbe.org/