AMA is pleased to announce the grantees of Session 27 (March 2015) of its mobility grants programme.
Of the eighty grant applicants, twenty were awarded grants:
• Ms. Ada Jeanne Umugwaneza (dancer, Rwanda): Ms. Umugwaneza will be travelling from Kigali to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, to participate in “Du geste à la danse,” the first module in the 3-part professional development workshop in traditional and contemporary African dance organized by the École des sables between April 6 and June 13, 2015.
• Ms. Amany Elsawy (lecturer in English literature, University of Alexandria, Egypt): Ms. Elsawy will travel to Cape Town to participate in the Women Playwrights International Conference (June 28 – July 4, 2015). She will present her first literary creation, a play titled The Sun.
• Ms. Anita Essien, Ms. Mill Lamboni and Ms. Raffaeila Ghislaine Aglago (musicians, Orchestra Bella Bellow, Togo): Guitarist Anita Essien, drummer Mill Lamboni and singer Raffaeila Ghislaine Aglago will travel from Lomé to Abidjan, Côte-d’Ivoire, to participate in the Festifées festival (April 20 – 26, 2015). Devoted exclusively to women’s art, the festival will be a platform for Ms. Essien, Ms. Lamboni and Ms. Aglago to share their experiences as members of Orchestre Bella Bellow, Togo’s only all-female orchestra, and to network with other female musicians.
• Mr. Bhupendra Jethwa (street artist, Kenya): Mr. Jethwa will be travelling from Nairobi to Kigali, Rwanda, to host workshops on graffiti and street arts for 20-25 Rwandan artists who currently work primarily on canvas. The workshops will be held at Ivuka Arts Studio from May 1 to 10, 2015.
• Ms. Chadilla Brigitte Fekrane (puppet artist, Morocco): Casablanca-based artist Chadilla Brigitte Fekrane will spend December 15 to January 5, 2015 in Ouagadougou, to undertake two artistic projects. First, she will perform her play “Les mots qui manquent à la danse” at the Institut Français. Secondly, she will be working on a new creative piece titled “[des femmes],” a performance/installation that aims to elevate the voices of Moroccan and Burkinabé women.
• Ms. Daphine Atukunda (curator, Afriart Gallery Ltd., Uganda): Ms. Atukunda will travel from Entebe to Harare, Zimbabwe on behalf of her gallery, Afriart Gallery Ltd., in order to participate in the Harare International Festival of the Arts, hosted at the First Floor Gallery (April 30 – May 4). *** Update: Ms. Atukunda’s grant was cancelled as she did not submit a letter of acceptance.
• Mr. Denver Breda (filmmaker, South Africa): Mr. Breda will be travelling from Cape Town, South Africa, to Zanzibar, Tanzania to participate in the Zanzibar International Film Festival, taking place between July 7 and 26, 2015.
• Ms. Anique Dovi Afi (dancer, Brin de Chocolat Dance Company, Togo): Ms. Dovi Afi will be travelling from Lomé to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, to participate in “Du geste à la danse,” the first module in the 3-part professional development workshop in traditional and contemporary African dance organized by the École des sables between April 6 and June 13, 2015.
• Mr. François-Xavier Gbré (photographer, Côte d’Ivoire): Mr. Gbré will travel from Abidjan to Rabat to complete a residency at the Kulte Gallery & Editions (July-October 2015). Together with fellow artist-in-residence and draughtswoman Zineb Benjelloun, he will create a series of works that will dialogue with the space of the old military hospital Marie Feuillet. They will be presented in a gallery exhibition in January 2016.
• Ms. Happiness Peter Kulwa Majige (dancer, Tanzania): Ms. Kulwa Majige will be travelling from Dar es Salaam to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, to participate in a two-week workshop on the modern African dance technique of Germaine Acogny, to be held between July 1 and 14, 2015.
• Ms. Jacqueline Maanyapelo (dancer, South Africa): Ms. Maanyapelo will travel from Cape Town, South Africa to Harare, Zimbabwe to perform her solo show Satisfaction Index at the Harare Festival of the Arts (HIFA) (April 28 – May 3, 2015). Inspired by the international Satisfaction of Life Index, the show highlights the often neglected beauty and light in a society struggling with violence and division between people.
• Mr. Kevin Agwona aka Bankslave (street artist, Kenya): Mr. Agwona will be travelling from Nairobi to Dakar, Senegal, to partake in the FESTIGRAFF festival, to be held between April 10 and 19. Africa’s first and largest festival of graffiti and street art, FESTIGRAFF will be a platform for Mr. Agwona to create, share his art and network with other African street artists.
• Ms. Michelle Opado (filmmaker, Afro Art Media, Kenya): Ms. Opado will travel from Nairobi, Kenya to Zanzibar, Tanzania, to produce a film about the Zanzibar International Film Festival (July 17 – 27, 2015), which will include interviews with participating filmmakers, editors and screenwriters.
• Mr. Mourad Koula and Mr. Nabil Nahiji (dancers and circus performers, Espace Darja, Morocco): Mr. Koula and Mr. Nahiji will travel from Casablanca to Alexandria, Egypt, to participate in the Festival Nassim el Raqs, hosted across the city of Alexandria between April 16 and May 3, 2015. They will be participating in Nassim el Raq’s “Solos” project, a multi-disciplinary project bringing together artists from across the Mediterranean region around questions surrounding contemporary dance and the specificities of dance in Alexandria.
• Ms. Mumbi Kaigwa (playwright and actor, the Arts Canvas, Kenya): Ms. Kaigwa will travel from Nairobi to Cape Town, South Africa, in order to participate in the 10th edition of the Women Playwrights’ International Conference, to be held between June 9 and July 3. She will also attend performances at the Grahamstown Festival between July 4 and 14.
• Ms. Oliva Randrianasolo (dancer, Compagnie Tahala, Madagascar): Ms. Randrianasolo will be travelling from Antananarivo to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, to participate in “Du geste à la danse,” the first module in the 3-part professional development workshop in traditional and contemporary African dance organized by the École des sables between April 6 and June 13, 2015.
• Mr. Soufian Ouissi (dancer, choreographer and curator, Association l’Art Rue, Tunisia): Mr. Ouissi will travel from Tunis to Kinshasa, DRC, to participate in the 6th edition of international arts festival Connexion Kin, to be held between July 2 and 12, 2015. He aims to use the festival as a platform for networking, discovering new practices and imagining new artistic links between North and Central Africa.
Distribution of the grants: AMA received grants from practitioners and cultural operators hailing from all five geographical regions of Africa and working across disciplines. Here is some further information regarding the distribution of the 80 applications received:
– Provenance: 30 from West Africa; 21 from Southern Africa; 13 from East Africa; 9 from Central Africa and 7 from Northern Africa. – Destination: 33 for West Africa; 22 for Southern Africa; 13 for East Africa; 8 for Central Africa and 4 for Northern Africa.
– Discipline: 21 in dance; 15 in visual arts; 16 for multi-disciplinary creation; 11 in music; 7 for literature; 5 for filmmaking; 3 in theatre and 2 for advocacy.
– Type of project: 32 for festivals; 23 for residencies; 13 for meetings/conferences/symposia; 7 for workshops/master classes; 2 for the creation of new works; 2 for performances, and 1 for an exhibition.
Here is some further information regarding the distribution of the 20 successful applications:
– Provenance: 7 from East Africa; 5 from West Africa; 5 from North Africa and 3 from Southern Africa.
– Destination: 9 for West Africa; 4 for Southern Africa; 3 for Eastern Africa; 3 for Northern Africa and 1 for Central Africa.
– Discipline: 8 in dance; 4 in visual arts; 3 in music; 2 theatre and puppetry; 2 in film and 1 in literature.
– Type of project: 9 for festivals; 5 for workshops; 2 for meetings/conferences/symposia; 2 for the creation of new works; 1 for a residency; and 1 for a performance.
Congratulations to the grantees!
AMA would like to take this opportunity to thank the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Stichting Doen for their support for the relaunch of the AMA grants program.
