building enduring partnerships: a report to the field

BUILDING ENDURING

PARTNERSHIPS A REPORT TO

THE FIELD THE AFRICA

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

CONSORTIUM

Written by Joan D. Frosch, Ph.D.

Center for World Arts University of Florida

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Building Enduring Partnerships: A Report to the Field is published by

MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.

This publication was made possible with generous support from

the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cover photograph: Nelisiwe Xaba in Correspondances. Photograph by Eric Boudet.

Title page photographs: (Left) Compagnie TchéTché in Dimi. Photograph by Wolfgang Weimer.

(Right) TACAC members and affiliate artists at The GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya,

2010. Photograph by Philip Bither.

©2011 by MAPP International Productions.

140 Second Avenue, Suite 502, New York, NY 10003

646-602-9390; www.mappinternational.org

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written

permission from the publisher

Publication concept, design, and printing: Four32C

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BUILDING ENDURING


THE FIELDTHE AFRICA

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

CONSORTIUM

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Acknowledgments 8

Foreword 10

TACAC U.S. Member Organizations &

Affiliates in Africa 12

Appendices 82

1OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICA CONTEMPORARY ARTS CONSORTIUM 14

A Fresh Landscape 16

A New Response 17

TACAC Activities 22

TACAC’s Message 24

A Reflection on Storytelling 26

CONTENTS

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2TACAC MODEL 28

The Praxis 30

Investing in Curatorial Research 31

Advancing the Creativity of the Artist 32

Connecting Artists, Audiences &

Communities 40

Building & Sharing Knowledge 42

Sustaining the Network & Developing

the Infrastructure 47

3BUILDING ENDURING PARTNERSHIPS 48

Thinking Differently 51

The Power of Listening 51

Meeting in Tunis 52

“The Human Before the Art” 53

Eye Level 54

Immersive Research 55

Maputo 57

Kisangani and Kinshasa 59

Meeting in Nairobi 60

Day One 64

Day Two 68

Reflection 70

4CONCLUSION 72

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The generosity of the many artists and arts

organizations that have inspired the creation

and work of The Africa Contemporary Arts

Consortium is immeasurable. By word and

by deed, they have educated the members of

the consortium about the critical artistic and

social goals to which they have dedicated

their lives’ work. This report acknowledges

with gratitude their eminent endeavors and

openhearted friendship.

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We are indebted to all of the artists,

organizations, and visionaries on both sides

of the Atlantic who have preceded The Africa

Contemporary Arts Consortium in pioneering

a place in the American imagination and on

our stages for African contemporary artists,

particularly 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange, Arts

International, the African Odyssey initiative at

the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing

Arts, and to former member organizations of

the Consortium: New Jersey Performing Arts

Center and August Wilson Center for African

American Culture. Finally, it is with deep

appreciation that we thank the funders of The

Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium: the

National Endowment for the Arts, the Doris

Duke Charitable Foundation, the New England

Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance

Project, and CulturesFrance. Your belief in and

support of our mission has made it possible to

reimagine global partnerships in the arts.

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FOREWORD

During the last decade, vital arts-based

processes have bubbled up in African

cities large and small, including prominent

but economically undermined centers

of contemporary expression such as

Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), or communities

deeply scarred by civil war such as Kisangani

(Democratic Republic of Congo). Creative

agents, in a surfeit of entrepreneurship and

innovation, have tirelessly recycled challenge

into hope. By taking signs of democracy

and shaping them into choreographic and

theatrical work, and using the work to

stimulate new ideas of community, many

African artists have rendered the making of

art into a practice of freedom.

In response, and for the first time in its

history, MAPP International Productions

generated a nationwide synergistic structure

to support and engage the spirit of the

innovative artistic citizenship emerging

from the work of African artists. In 2004,

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in concert with nine prestigious U.S.-based

arts entities (August Wilson Center for

African American Culture, Bates Dance

Festival, Center for World Arts/University of

Florida, the John F. Kennedy Center for the

Performing Arts, New Jersey Performing

Arts Center, Seattle Theatre Group, VSA

Arts New Mexico/North Fourth Art Center,

Walker Art Center, and Yerba Buena Center

for the Arts), MAPP shaped the vital Africa

Contemporary Arts Consortium (TACAC). By

setting into motion a dynamic flow of ideas

among artists and arts leaders in the U.S.

and Africa, TACAC imagined a landscape and

practice of international culture exchange

rooted in partnership and engagement in the

artistic process.

The conceptual process of making art, the

very prototype of thinking against the grain,

may not commonly be attributed to cultural

diplomacy or the practice of democracy. But we

would urge those who doubt to ponder more

deeply how art shapes ways for individuals

and communities to rethink, reconsider, and

even recommit to building civil society within

and across borders. Do join MAPP and our

esteemed partners on both sides of the Atlantic

as we cross borders, take risks, create dialogue,

and open minds. TACAC attests to the

life-changing power of the paradigm shift

where cultural exchange at its most essential

and most profound level is conceived of as

a relationship. Through the pages of this

publication we seek to build a relationship

with you, the reader. We welcome you to seek

resonance in the thoughts that interest you, and

to see your own reflection in ideas that may

signal a shift in your work and dreams.

Ann Rosenthal, Executive Director & Producer

Cathy Zimmerman, Co-Director & Producer

MAPP International Productions

General Manager,

The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium

September 28, 2011

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TACACU.S. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS & AFFILIATES IN AFRICA

Bates Dance FestivalLewiston, ME

www.batesdancefestival.org

The John F. Kennedy Center for the

Performing Arts Washington, D.C.

www.kennedy-center.org

National Black Arts Festival

Atlanta, GAwww.nbaf.org

Seattle Theatre Group Seattle, WAwww.stgpresents.org

VSA Arts New Mexico/ North Fourth Art Center Albuquerque, NMwww.vsartsnm.org

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts San Francisco, CAwww.ybca.org

Walker Art Center Minneapolis, MN

www.walkerart.org


Gainesville, FLwww.arts.ufl.edu/cwa

MAPP International Productions

New York, NYwww.mappinternational.org

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Boyzie Cekwana/ Floating Outfit

Project Durban, South Africa

Opiyo Okach/ Gàara ProjectsNairobi, Kenya www.gaaraprojects.com

Judy Ogana & Joy Mboya/ The GoDown Arts CentreNairobi, Kenyawww.thegodown artscentre.com

Faustin Linyekula & Virginie Dupray/Studios Kabako

Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo

www.kabako.org

Panaibra Gabriel Canda/CulturArte Maputo, Mozambique

Maria Helena Pinto Maputo, Mozambiquewww.dansartes.wordpress.com

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OVERVIEW OF THE AFRICA CONTEMPORARY ARTSCONSORTIUM

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A FRESH LANDSCAPEOver the last decade a growing wave of

artists in and of Africa have reimaged

African pasts and presents to configure new

landscapes of contemporary performance.

These artists freshly interpret African life,

often deploying a bricolage of traditional,

popular, and/or contemporary forms. Many

trendsetters are choreographers and theater

makers. While the naming of their emergent

performance forms is not fixed, artists’

messages are urgent, vital, and dimensional.

As the artists interpret their lives for the

stage they do not seek to speak “in the name

of all Africans”—surely an unfathomable

task, given that almost 995 million people

inhabit the continent across 55 independent

nations. Rather, artists harness the power of

creative practices that are as diverse—and

as innovative—as their individual artistry.

Part of a greater movement of contemporary

expression in Africa that includes film,

literature, and visual art, these innovators

face down the “epistemological negation” of

Africa to the notion of the contemporary.1

Indeed, the notion of the contemporary does

not “belong” to the West. That is to say,

the new languages these artists develop

to express their lives are unique forces of

innovation, not mere simulacra of some other

notion of contemporary. Artists’ experimental

practices are windows into 21st-century

thought, often hybridizing artistic practice

and creative entrepreneurship, stimulating

innovative models for sustainable arts

practice. Indeed, many continental artists

have cleared a space for performance to

advance human aspirations for a better global

future—a future in which all global citizens

have a stake.

THE WORK OF ART AND THE WORK

OF CULTURE IS TO PAVE THE WAY

FOR A QUALITATIVE PRACTICE OF THE

IMAGINATION—A PRACTICE WITHOUT

WHICH WE WILL HAVE NO NAME,

NO FACE AND NO VOICE IN HISTORY.

—ACHILLE MBEMBE

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From its origins, U.S. culture is strongly

Afrocentric. However, media influences,

education (or lack of), persistent racism,

and other factors combine to beleaguer

American perceptions of Africa. Such

views often privilege tradition over the

contemporary, disaster over creativity, and

victimhood over the agency of the creative

individual. To many Africans, Americans

may be viewed as a facilely affluent people,

generally uninformed about Africa: people

who, while somewhat mindful of the U.S.

role in slavery, are often oblivious to the

fact that their government has been involved

in operations altering the course of the

postcolonial history of the continent. Thus

the works of African experimentalists offer

Americans an extraordinary opportunity to

newly engage with the continent.

Several TACAC members have reported a

“conversion experience” or paradigm shift

that committed them to build upon their

experiences with contemporary African

performance, and, ultimately, to build the

Consortium. Conversions occurred mid-

dialogue over a drink with an intrepid artist,

in a shared experience with an audience

member that clinched the importance of

the work, or, as in the case of Ken Foster,

TACAC founding member and executive

director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,

in a performance that—to this day—never

stopped stirring. Foster recalls his first

encounter with African contemporary

performance:

Béatrice Kombé and Compagnie TchéTché

presented Dimi—Women’s Sorrow and what

followed was without question one of the three

or four greatest art experiences of my lifetime.

With live music and the fierce, uncompromising

dance style of Béatrice [Kombé] and Nadia

[Beugré], I was completely mesmerized by

the performance. At the end, after a stunned

silence, the audience literally leapt to its feet,

applauding madly for the artistic revelation that

had just occurred. I stood there myself, tears

streaming down my face.

TchéTché introduced me to a whole genre of

dance that I was unfamiliar with—and in the

years since I have spent much time and energy

learning more about contemporary dance from

Africa and finding ways to bring that dance to

my communities in the United States. But no

experience can, I think, ever match that first

time that I encountered the artistry and the

power of the work of Compagnie TchéTché.

A NEW RESPONSEInspired by such transformative

experiences, in 2004 MAPP International

Productions (MAPP) invited a group of

leading American presenters, curators, and

academics to consider the development of

a consortium to diminish the risk involved

in bringing the work of African artists to

communities across the United States. A

number of us had previously partnered on

projects featuring contemporary African

performance. We had developed trust and

faith in one another’s passionate interest in

this rapidly transforming landscape. Out of

that meeting The Africa Contemporary Arts

Consortium (TACAC) was born.

Clearly, the stirring work of many of these

artists merited deep and provocative

cultural exchanges with the United States.

It had the potential to open new dialogues

about contemporary performance, educate

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American audiences about the African

imagination in real time, and connect

professionals in the field to invigorating

global trends. But in the absence of viable

structures of support, how could we

equitably advance the work of the artists

to build interest in this critical movement

among our varied U.S. constituencies?

However committed, we were keenly aware

of the multiple issues and risks associated

with sponsoring the work.

In contrast to the promise and energy

of African contemporary performance,

shrinking U.S. support for international

cultural exchange weighed heavily in the

atmosphere. While the groundbreaking

work of 651 ARTS/Africa Exchange

continued, key resources that had been

available for such work receded: The Ford

Foundation had terminated its substantial

multiyear Internationalizing New Works

in the Performing Arts initiative (a key

funder of Africa Exchange, among other

significant programs); Arts International

had halted operations; and the Kennedy

Center’s pioneering four-year African

Odyssey initiative had concluded several

years prior. Reduced funding and the

lack of resources on the continent to

subsidize U.S. presentations of African

work exacerbated the financial stress on

American organizations seeking to work

with African artists. Further, more stringent,

if not capricious, government regulations

made it increasingly difficult for foreigners

to work in the U.S. If solving visa and

funding issues was a distant dream on

the horizon, risk reduction and resource

sharing was the reality-based alternative for

moving forward. Indeed, we would need all

the strength we could muster to succeed in

the culturally myopic, financially challenged

post-9/11 environment.

The concept of a consortium proposed

a powerful opportunity to move beyond

what any individual organization could

accomplish. TACAC was entirely self-

financed at first, with each organization

contributing $2,500 cash from its own

budget to get it up and running with MAPP

serving as general manager. Shared

professional history and passion fueled

the collaborative spirit: We were ready

to maximize a varied ecosystem of skills

among members. Not only did we represent

different geographic regions and the

interests of wide-ranging constituencies, but

each of us specialized in distinctive areas of

cultural work and served different functions

within our organizations. The organizations

themselves represented a diverse ecology

of the American arts landscape: from

residency centers, universities, and multi-

arts complexes to small theaters and

producing organizations. Members sought

to create a living structure in which to

combine skill sets, foment ideas, maximize

resources, share methodologies, and layer

creative efforts in pursuit of a common goal:

to develop a new model of interaction with

African artists and U.S. audiences rooted in

respectful and sustainable relationships.

We set out to expand upon, if not reenvision,

prevalent models of global arts presenting

characterized by “fad and fashion or

exoticized one-off performances,” as

TACAC founding member Baraka Sele

(New Jersey Performing Arts Center) has

noted. In contrast to consumerist “import-

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export” models of cultural exchange,

we were motivated to seek an engaged,

contextualized, and equitable model for

the presentation of global artists in the

U.S. From inception, we have prioritized

opportunities intended to nurture dialogue

and exchange between and among artists

and the public. We would soon discover

that by creating an environment of

genuine listening, we could seed quality

opportunities—organically and over time—to

challenge stereotypes and expectations

and grow more meaningful encounters for

constituencies on both sides of the Atlantic.

TACAC began to shape a model of exchange

rooted in a vital intercontinental network

of like-minded artists and cultural workers

nourished by a commitment to the long term.

To date, among the artists, companies,

and organizations with whom TACAC has

worked are: Compagnie Heddy Maalem

(Algeria/France), Compagnie TchéTché (Côte

d’Ivoire), Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako

(Democratic Republic of Congo), Germaine

Acogny/Compagnie Jant-Bi/L’Ecole des

Sables (Senegal), Gregory Maqoma/

Vuyani Dance Theatre (South Africa), Salia

Sanou/Compagnie Salia nï Seydou/Centre

de Développement Chorégraphique – la

Termitière (Burkina Faso), Hafiz Dhaou and

Aïcha M’barek/Compagnie Chatha (Tunisia/

France), Compagnie Julie Dossavi (France/

Benin/Mali), Qudus Onikeku/Yk Projects

(Nigeria/France), Boyzie Cekwana/Floating

Outfit Project (South Africa), Lucky Kele

(South Africa), Michel Kouakou/Daara Dance

(Côte d’Ivoire/U.S.), Daudet Grazaï Fabrice

(Côte d’Ivoire/France), Maria Helena Pinto

(Mozambique), Opiyo Okach/Gàara Projects

(Kenya/France), Panaibra Gabriel Canda/

CulturArte (Mozambique), Judy Ogana

TACAC ACTIVITIESBETWEEN 2004 AND 2011, CONSORTIUM MEMBERS HAVE:

HOSTED

25 CREATIVE RESIDENCIES THAT GAVE AFRICAN ARTISTS CREATIVE TIME IN AND EXPOSURE TO THE U.S.

PERFORMING ARTS FIELD.

SPONSORED

27U.S. AND NORTH AMERICAN TOURS INTRODUCING AFRICAN ARTISTS TO

AUDIENCES IN PERFORMANCES, WORKSHOPS, INTERVIEWS, LECTURES, ETC.

CREATED, COMMISSIONED, AND SUPPORTED

SEVEN FILMS AND ESSAYS THAT REENVISION THE FRAMEWORK OF CULTURAL INSCRIPTION TO EFFECTIVELY INTRODUCE ARTISTS’ INNOVATIVE PRACTICES TO AUDIENCES, STUDENTS, AND OTHERS. 22

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PRESENTED

14REPORTS TO THE FIELD, INCLUDING PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS IN NORTH AMERICA, AFRICA, AND EUROPE.

INVESTED

MORE THAN

$3MIN THESE PROJECTS AND EVENTS

TO DATE.

CONDUCTED

28 RESEARCHTRIPS TO 19 COUNTRIES IN AFRICA, EUROPE, AND THE MIDDLE EAST TO SEE FIRSTHAND THE CREATIVITY OF AFRICAN ARTISTS AND TO HEAR ABOUT THEIR NEEDS AND CHALLENGES.

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and Joy Mboya/The GoDown Arts Centre

(Kenya), The Market Theatre (South Africa),

Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe/Association

Noa-Compagnie Vincent Mantsoe (South

Africa/France), Nadia Beugré (Côte d’Ivoire),

Kettly Noël/Donko Seko (Haiti/Mali), Mamela

Nyamza (South Africa), Nelisiwe Xaba

(South Africa), Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco),

Handspring Puppet Company & William

Kentridge (South Africa), Koffi Koko (Benin),

Familia Productions (Tunisia), Cie2k_far

Contemporary Dance Company (Morocco),

Compagnie La Baraka (Algeria/France),

Karima Mansour/Ma’at for Contemporary

Dance (Egypt), Fathy Salama and Orchestra

(Egypt), and Nawal (Comoros).

Each Consortium member entered into

a unique commitment at institutional,

curatorial, financial, and personal levels

to build and sustain multidimensional

exchanges with African artists and cultural

workers. The layering of skill sets, contacts,

funding, and other resources resulted in a

resilient web of exchange and support. Even

today, we think of ourselves not as an entity

but as a practice characterized by listening

closely, engaging deeply, and sharing

skills, ideas, and influence, ever fueled by

research and commitment. While African

artists and U.S. constituencies would

benefit from the growth of relationships and

artistic interchange, the Consortium was

increasingly energized by the opportunity

to strengthen the U.S. role as an engaged

partner in a global creative community.

We were grateful that CulturesFrance stepped

up to become TACAC’s initial external

funder in 2005. While the Consortium

did not fit into one existing U.S. funding

model, as TACAC developed its process,

it succeeded in attracting the interest of

the National Endowment for the Arts for

support of member meetings, research, and

organizational structure, as well as tour

support from the New England Foundation

for the Arts’ National Dance Project. Each

member institution contributed its own

matching funds. The support of TACAC’s

Building Enduring Partnerships initiative by

the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Fund

for National Projects marked a turning point

in the organization, as will be discussed

in this narrative. In all, the generous

financial support and rich professional

acknowledgment we have received to date

has allowed our practice to flourish, and

has positioned TACAC to contribute to

the work of many other organizations and

policy makers who seek similar goals. We

now share TACAC’s story as an empirical

approach to cultural diplomacy that asserts

its effectiveness on a human scale.

TACAC’S MESSAGEThe interconnected network of the global

present asserts itself unevenly and moves

across the past, present, and future: Thus

TACAC’s work must bear “the weight of the

past and of received ideas.”2 The gravitas

of the shared global moment impels us

to think deeply and creatively to advance

beyond inequitable models and exhausted

categories. TACAC believes that the work

is urgent. In the words of critical theorist

Achille Mbembe: “The work of art and the

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A REFLECTION ON STORYTELLINGAs TACAC reflects upon and assesses the

present in order to mindfully grow into the

future, we believe we have a story worth

sharing. And while it is by no means static,

we are eager to share the model we have

developed to date. We seek to foment

discussion, reflection, experimentation, and

to stimulate enduring partnerships among

artists, cultural workers, arts organizations,

and all segments of the global creative

economy. We hope that professionals and

students engaged in international cultural

exchange from diverse fields—education,

cultural development, government, arts, and

media, among others—will take a moment

to consider, if not respond to, the ideas

presented.

Using an approach that is personal, learning

oriented, open-ended, and organic, the

narrative mirrors how TACAC operates as an

organization. These pages are structured by

TACAC’s five-part praxis, developed during

a two-day meeting of Consortium members

work of culture is to pave the way for a

qualitative practice of the imagination—

a practice without which we will have no

name, no face and no voice in history.”3

We see creativity and connection as

powerful human resources, and these so-

called intangibles truly sustain our force.

The Consortium’s message foregrounds

the power of personhood as honed by the

creative agent. The artist’s dedication to

contemporary arts and culture is a rich

and productive force with the potential to

advance positive change and development

in both perceptions and material realities

across the Atlantic. As such, TACAC seeks

to offer Americans an alternative to the

prevalent perspective on Africa heard

from the media, education, business, and

government, which focus on, if not actually

sensationalize, poverty, ethnic war, poor

healthcare, shortage of quality education,

government impunity, and human rights

abuses, resulting in representing the African

as a victim, rather than as a person of value,

an agent of change…an artist.

AFRICA CONSORTIUM MEMBERS ARE DEDICATED TO NOTHING

LESS THAN CREATING A NEW MODEL FOR INTERCONTINENTAL

CULTURAL EXCHANGE THAT REVERBERATES OUTWARD FROM THE

GRASSROOTS—REPLACING CULTURAL ASSUMPTIONS WITH GENUINE

LISTENING, AND FINANCIAL IMBALANCE WITH FAIR PRACTICES. OUR

VISION OF RESPECTFUL AND SUSTAINABLE INTERCONTINENTAL

RELATIONSHIPS SEEKS TO MOVE INTERNATIONAL CONVERSATIONS IN

THE PERFORMING ARTS PRESENTING FIELD TO A NEW LEVEL, WITH

THE MESSAGE THAT TRUE CULTURAL EXCHANGE WITH ARTISTS IN

LESS PRIVILEGED PARTS OF THE WORLD IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE, BUT

POTENTIALLY TRANSFORMATIVE FOR ALL PARTIES.

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at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, in

2007, culminating in the Building Enduring

Partnerships initiative, generously funded

by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. We

believe this model represents a shift of the

prevalent paradigm in much international

artistic exchange, and contributes to the

practices of others as exemplified by such

initiatives as the Congo Project of Belgium’s

KVS Theatre (more formally known as the

Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg or Royal

Flemish Theatre), the Sundance East Africa

Institute, and the Kennedy Center’s recent

expansion of arts management seminars on

site in five African cities, to name but a few.

The narrative weaves a tapestry from

extensive primary data, including

interviews, meetings, research reports,

and conversations that have taken place

among TACAC members, artists, and arts

organizers on the African continent, in

Europe, and in North America. Challenges

and obstacles encountered, lessons learned,

personal anecdotes, recommendations,

demonstrations of “best practices,” and

unanswered questions motivating us to seek

ever further are threaded throughout. In all

its operations, the Consortium is committed

to a methodology of information gathering

and sharing as the basis for building

programmatic initiatives: We build our

program of reciprocal international cultural

exchange through a practice of reciprocal

international cultural exchange. The report

mirrors this methodology.

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TACAC MODEL

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THE PRAXISThe Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium

carries out its work through a cycle of five

interrelated and interdependent program

areas; each area includes a range of

activities that individual members, or the

Consortium as a whole, develop, host,

present, and support. The five program

areas combine into a reflective praxis,

which calls upon the unique orientations

and strengths of individual members and

the organizations they represent. The areas

intersect to create the resilient strength of

the organization. The five areas are: INVESTING IN CURATORIAL RESEARCH

ADVANCING THE CREATIVITY OF

THE ARTIST

SUSTAINING THE NETWORK &

DEVELOPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE

CONNECTING ARTISTS, AUDIENCES

& COMMUNITIES

BUILDING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE

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INVESTING IN CURATORIAL RESEARCH

ATTEND PERFORMANCES, REHEARSALS,

WORKSHOPS; MEET FACE-TO-FACE WITH

ARTISTS TO DEEPEN KNOWLEDGE OF

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN PERFORMING

ARTS FROM VARIED PERSPECTIVES.

RESEARCH THE HISTORICAL

BACKGROUNDS, AS WELL AS THE

RELEVANT CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS,

WITHIN WHICH ARTISTS WORK.

ENGAGE RESPECTED LOCAL EXPERTS

WHO CAN EDUCATE AND PROVIDE

CULTURAL BACKGROUND AND

INTRODUCTIONS AS WE RESEARCH THE

ARTS IN PARTICULAR COUNTRIES.

IDENTIFY AFRICAN-BASED

ORGANIZATIONS THAT SHARE

INTERESTS IN NETWORKING.

Many African artists—including those with

whom we have worked most closely—have

noted with dismay that Americans are rarely

visible on the scene in Africa. They are

conspicuously absent at festivals, let alone

engaged with African artists in their home

bases. Encouraged by our African affiliates,

TACAC members explicitly sought to address

the “American absence.” If members were

to advance the modes of presentation—and

representation—of African artists in the U.S.,

it would be critical to learn firsthand how,

where, in what circumstances, and with whom

the artists worked to create their futures.

TACAC members regularly seek out artistic

work to inform, if not reinvigorate, their global

views, and to expose their constituencies

to fresh renderings of African experiences.

Bringing their points of view as presenters,

curators, producers, and academics into the

Consortium, TACAC members commit to

regularly attend performances, workshops,

and meetings throughout the world to build

and share perspectives on contemporary

African performing arts. Paying particular

attention to the social and political histories

and current contexts of artists’ works

and lives, members write detailed reports

about their research travel. The reports

are disseminated to all members and

their constituencies and are archived for

future use. TACAC maintains an up-to-date

calendar listing Africa-related performance

and festival events as a resource to plan

members’ travel. While TACAC contributes

$1,000 to $2,000 toward travel costs for

each research trip, members must cover the

balance of their expenses.

TACAC has organized 28 research trips to 14

African and 5 European countries for members

and other U.S. arts workers to see African

artists’ works, and to strategize partnerships

with artists, arts and community groups,

and funders. Festival and event travel has

included: FNB Dance Umbrella, Infecting the

City: the Spier Public Arts Festival, and the

National Arts Festival (South Africa); Harare

International Festival of the Arts (Zimbabwe);

Kaay Fecc (Senegal); Centre de Développement

Chorégraphique – La Termitière (Burkina Faso);

Julidans (The Netherlands); Danse l’Afrique

danse!/Choreographic Encounters of Africa and

the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, France, Tunisia,

and Mali); and the Arab Dance Platform at

BIPOD/Beirut International Platform of Dance

(Lebanon). Beyond seeing performances,

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Residencies are an essential part of the work

and sharply distinguish TACAC’s approach

from the traditional import-export model

of international performing arts exchange.

Face-to-face conversations and public

dialogues among peers and others can dispel

misperceptions on both sides, opening hearts

and minds to real connection. To date, TACAC

has hosted 14 African artists in multiweek

creative residencies in the U.S., providing

precious time and space for creative

exploration and for meeting U.S.-based dance

and theater artists, performing arts students,

community members, representatives from

arts organizations, and funders. These have

included, but are not limited to: residencies

for Qudus Onikeku (Nigeria), Opiyo Okach

(Kenya), Nelisiwe Xaba and Lucky Kele

(South Africa), and Nadia Beugré (Côte

d’Ivoire); and visits to the U.S. for Boyzie

Cekwana and Gregory Maqoma from South

Africa and Panaibra Gabriel Canda from

Mozambique to meet with peer artists and

arts professionals, and to present at national

conferences, including the annual Association

of Performing Arts Presenters conference in

New York City and the National Performance

Network annual meeting.

Through coproductions, residencies, and

tours, TACAC seeks to provide opportunities

for artists to create, develop, and perform

new work, and to connect with artists

TACAC members meet individually and as a

group with artists and cultural workers. Such

encounters engage, inform, and, as in the

case of our May 2008 meetings with artists

in Tunis, during the seventh edition of Danse

l’Afrique danse!, provoke critical change.

The rich discussions in Tunisia heralded a

transformation in our thinking and furthered

the development of the Consortium’s Building

Enduring Partnerships initiative (see section 3).

ADVANCING THE CREATIVITY OF THE ARTIST

CONTRIBUTE TO THE SUSTAINABILITY

OF STABLE WORKING ENVIRONMENTS

FOR ARTISTS THROUGH SUPPORT

FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, NETWORKING,

AND PROGRAMS THAT ARE FLUID AND

RESPONSIVE TO CHANGING CONDITIONS.

FACILITATE TRAVEL FOR AFRICAN

ARTISTS TO CONNECT WITH

THEIR PEERS, BOTH INTRA- AND

INTERCONTINENTALLY.

SUPPORT ARTISTS OVER TIME IN THE

CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW

IDEAS.

HELP COMBAT THE ISOLATION ARTISTS

REPORT DUE TO CHALLENGES POSED

BY GEOGRAPHY, ECONOMICS, AND/OR

POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES AND

SITUATIONS IN WHICH ESTABLISHED

AFRICAN ARTISTS CAN BUILD UPON

THEIR CRAFT AND FUEL THEIR

CREATIVITY.

COMMISSION/COPRODUCE NEW WORK

BY AFRICAN ARTISTS.

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idea for a new ensemble performance

work. In Men-Jaro, Mantsoe sought to join

forces with South African composer and

ethnomusicologist Anthony Caplan to celebrate

as well as redefine the intrinsic relationship

that exists among African contemporary

dance, ritual, and music.

MAPP stepped forward to coproduce the

work, along with South Africa’s FNB Dance

Umbrella and Association Noa-Compagnie

Vincent Mantsoe. Through the combined

efforts of the coproducers and TACAC’s

connections, the creation of Men-Jaro

was awarded support from foundations

and government agencies in France, the

Netherlands, the U.S., and South Africa,

including Association Française d’Action

Artistique/AFAA and DRAC Auvergne Culture

Communication in France; Prince Claus Fund

of the Netherlands; Multi-Arts Production

Fund; and the National Dance Project of

the New England Foundation for the Arts;

Business Arts South Africa, Institut Francais

d’Afrique du Sud, South Africa’s National Arts

Council, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy

via the Arts & Culture Trust of South Africa.

In March 2006, Men-Jaro premiered at FNB

Dance Umbrella, Johannesburg, South

Africa, and toured to Queen Elizabeth Hall,

Southbank Centre, London, England, in

October 2006. The work premiered in North

America at Miami Light Project, Miami,

FL, in January 2007, and subsequently

toured to 11 North American cities: SUNY

Arts at Oswego, State University of New

York, Oswego, NY; National Arts Centre,

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Clarice Smith

Performing Arts Center, College Park, MD;

Lang Performing Arts Center, Swarthmore

and others from across the continent and

abroad. While the emergent African artist

may find himself or herself supported by

various European and African platforms that

seek to stimulate the field of contemporary

performance, the more established artist

may have fewer resources available.

On the continent audiences for

contemporary performances can be small,

and opportunities for philanthropic or

corporate backing few. Even South Africa’s

vibrant scene has encountered serious

financial challenges. For example, the

loss of long-term corporate sponsorship

of Johannesburg’s FNB Dance Umbrella

sent organizers scrambling for support to

continue this historically and artistically

significant festival which, happily, is planning

its twenty-fourth consecutive season. But

such resilience is not a given, and certainly

not uncomplicated. Across the continent,

artists report not only a lack of support,

but also a vulnerability to manipulation,

whereby the art form can feel dominated, in

the words of one artist, by foreign money,

artists, and taste. Indeed, foreign support is,

at times, the only direct source of funding,

but it can come with multiple agendas having

little to do with the artist’s goals.

While TACAC cannot address all of these

challenges, we do introduce artists to

networks and resources that can support

their artistic projects, and contribute to artists’

goals as they envision them, transcending

have/have-not approaches. For example,

in 2003 Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe,

one of postapartheid South Africa’s leading

choreographers, came to TACAC cofounder,

MAPP International Productions, with an

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College, Swarthmore, PA; Kumble Theater

for the Performing Arts (copresented by

651 ARTS/Danspace Project), Brooklyn, NY;

Montréal en Lumière/Montreal High Lights

Festival, Montreal, Canada; Duke University/

Institute of the Arts Performances, Duke

University, Durham, NC; Dance Center

at Columbia College, Chicago, IL; VSA/

North Fourth Art Center, Albuquerque, NM;

Stanford Lively Arts, Stanford, CA; and

Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette

College, Easton, PA.

In addition to support for the development

and creation of new work, TACAC is

responsive to African artists’ oft-expressed

desire for greater connection with their peers

on the continent. Indeed, intracontinental

travel and collaboration not only combat

isolation and challenges posed by geographic,

social, economic, and political circumstances,

but foment a diversity of ideas, training

opportunities, and artistic collaborations, and

energize the growth and/or sustainability of

formal and informal networks among African

cultural operators.

In addition to their prolific artistic outputs,

artists such as Germaine Acogny (Senegal),

Salia Sanou (Burkina Faso), and others have

independently prioritized intracontinental

cooperation. By regularly redirecting the

dynamic outward focus of performance to

the critical nourishment and networking of

young artists through workshops, long-term

training initiatives, and festivals, these artists

are helping to foster the next wave of the

art form. Boyzie Cekwana (South Africa)

disbanded his permanent company in favor of

a more flexible structure which has freed him

to dedicate his “shoulder of support” to create

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WHEN AN INDIVIDUAL FEELS A PROFOUND CONNECTION

WITH SOMEONE—AND IT’S NOT JUST BECAUSE THEY

COME FROM THE SAME CONTINENT OR BECAUSE

SOMEONE IN PARIS PUT UP MONEY SO THAT

AFRICAN DANCE MAKERS AND DANCE ACTIVISTS

CAN COME TOGETHER—BUT BECAUSE THEY

REALLY FEEL THAT THERE IS SOMETHING WE

NEED TO BUILD TOGETHER.… SO IT’S NOT

BETTING ON FINISHED PRODUCTS. BUT IT’S

A BET ON PROCESSES, FIRST OF ALL. AND

YOU CAN ONLY DO THAT IF YOU’VE BEEN

ALLOWED INTO SOMEONE’S PROCESS,

BASICALLY. AND I’D LIKE THAT TO

EXIST MORE ON THE CONTINENT,

WHERE WE’RE ALLOWED INTO

ONE ANOTHER’S PROCESSES.

—FAUSTIN LINYEKULA,

STUDIOS KABAKO

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Ivorian artists Béatrice Kombé and Nadia

Beugré. Kombé had founded the all-female

Compagnie TchéTché in 1997 to show

that woman is not the weaker gender. It is

notable that Côte d’Ivoire was formerly one

of Africa’s wealthiest nations. From 1993 to

2006, its capital of Abidjan was an important

center of arts production and international

marketing as host of MASA, Marché des

arts du spectacle Africain. However, years

of political turmoil and interethnic conflict

unraveled the economy, infrastructure, and

MASA. As the nation teetered on the brink of

chaos, Ivorian artists struggled to survive.

In fall 2006, MAPP engaged the powerful

TchéTché in a nine-city U.S. tour of Dimi.

The tour was launched at the John F.

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

(Washington, D.C.), where TACAC member

Alicia Adams arranged for company

members to meet with cultural policy

makers to advance discussions on the art

form in the U.S and on the continent. The

tour continued to Wexner Center for the

Arts (Columbus, OH); Walker Art Center

(Minneapolis, MN); Center for the Arts,

Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT); VSA/

North Fourth Art Center (Albuquerque, NM);

World Theater at California State University

Monterey Bay (Monterey, CA); Seattle

Theatre Group (Seattle, WA); Yerba Buena

Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA);

culminating at White Bird (Portland, OR).

Shockingly, not two months after the

company returned home to Abidjan, Béatrice

Kombé died. It was a profound loss for the

world of dance, but an unimaginable one for

her partner, Nadia Beugré. Many of Beugré’s

Ivorian artist colleagues had been forced to

initiatives such as the Southern African

network with Studios Kabako (Democratic

Republic of Congo), CulturArte (Mozambique),

and Compagnie Rary (Madagascar).

Recognizing the reciprocal value strong

African-based networks can bring to

continental artists and to the Consortium,

TACAC is seeking to marshal resources to

support the development of an emergent

continental initiative led by Studios Kabako

in collaboration with Andréya Ouamba/

Compagnie 1er Temps (Congo-Brazzaville/

Senegal) and CulturArte (Mozambique).

In a multidimensional conception of

artist residency, the initiative frames

the importance of the work of artists

across the spectrum, including the mid-

career artist who is rarely prioritized in

funding strategies. Further, this broad

geo-choreographic initiative seeks to

advance creation at all levels by providing

developmental residency opportunities,

financial, technical, and logistical production

assistance, as well as touring support on

local, regional, and international levels.

In another example of intra- and

intercontinental support, and building on

established and strong relationships, TACAC

has been deeply committed to the work of

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d’Ivoire) are among the few but triumphant

female choreographic voices on the African

stage today, thus the title of the program.

In June 2012, TACAC will partner with

KVS (Brussels) to host a developmental

residency in the KVS Theatre to prepare

the Voices of Strength U.S. tour curated and

produced by MAPP. The performers will

convene for a period of seven days. The

residency has four purposes. First, some

artists have had uneven access to design

and technical proficiency in the building of

their works. The KVS residency will provide

equal access to expertise, and each work

will be produced to the highest professional

level for combined touring. Second, while

the artists know each other by reputation

and have crossed paths at festivals, several

have never personally met nor had any

time to be together. Thus the residency will

facilitate personal and creative connections

among the artists. Third, TACAC cofounder

Joan Frosch, director of the Center for

World Arts, University of Florida, will

conduct qualitative research with the artists

to develop resource materials to accompany

the Voices of Strength tour, and to contribute

to the nascent literature on African women

choreographers. Fourth, the residency will

deepen the connection between TACAC and

KVS as TACAC seeks to develop appropriate

linkages among the U.S, Africa, and Europe.

CONNECTING ARTISTS, AUDIENCES & COMMUNITIES

PRESENT PERFORMANCES,

CREATIVE RESIDENCIES,

WORKSHOPS, FILM SCREENINGS,

create mostly in exile, including childhood

friends Michel Kouakou, who lived in New

York and Abidjan, and Daudet Grazaï Fabrice,

who lived and worked in Paris. Now Beugré

set off to rebuild her life in temporary exile as

well, living between France and Senegal.

Beugré, Kouakou, and Fabrice sought to

revisit their childhood friendship in an artistic

work. They were determined to stare down

grief, illness, economic duress, and the

painful unraveling of their beloved homeland

and to lay “the first stone” of a project built

on their shared Ivorian past. The artists’ goals

resonated with TACAC. Bates Dance Festival,

VSA/North Fourth Art Center, and the

Consortium decided to help the artists jump-

start this choreography-beyond-boundaries

by hosting them at the Bates Dance Festival

in summer 2008 where they began to

cocreate a piece that “invite[d] them to look

inside themselves and examine their common

past.”4 TACAC subsequently supported

Kouakou to travel to Senegal to continue the

collaboration. By returning them to the solace

of friendship, the work helped the artists to

bridge loss and emerge renewed.

TACAC’s relationship with Beugré

continues through its latest intracontinental

partnership, Voices of Strength. Joining

across the reaches of the continent from

South Africa to Mozambique to Côte

d’Ivoire to Mali and Morocco, five women

choreographers will share a two-part

program of their award-winning works on

a four- to six-week North American tour in

fall 2012. The choreographers Kettly Noël

(Haiti/Mali), Nelisiwe Xaba (South Africa),

Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco), Maria Helena

Pinto (Mozambique), and Nadia Beugré (Côte

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For example, during a six-week U.S. tour of

Gregory Maqoma/Vuyani Dance Theatre’s

Beautiful Me in the fall of 2009, Maqoma

and his musicians taught dance and music

master classes; participated in moderated

postperformance discussions; visited

ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology,

and ethnicity, nation, and world community

classes; gave informal concerts; met

community members at lunches and dinners;

and participated in panel discussions

including ones at the Performing Diaspora

conference organized by the Alliance

for California Traditional Arts in San

Francisco, and with local Seattle artists as

part of Africa Live Seattle, moderated by

Consortium member Vivian Phillips.

Among the tour locations was Bates College,

in its first-ever integration of a Bates Dance

Festival artist to be presented during the

academic year. The success of Beautiful

Me at Bates College was a culmination

of Maqoma’s creative relationship with

the Bates and Lewiston communities

established through TACAC cofounder Laura

Faure, director of the Bates Dance Festival,

and it was a highlight of the tour. During the

summer of 2005, the festival had hosted

Maqoma and collaborators Faustin Linyekula

and Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe for a

three-week creative residency that laid

the groundwork for the piece. MAPP

International Productions, building on the

investment made by the festival, followed

the development of the work and organized

Maqoma’s debut U.S. tour. Upon his return

in 2009, Bates students and local audiences

who had engaged with the research and

development of the piece proudly welcomed

the work. Faure reflected: “We know that

LECTURES, AND DISCUSSIONS.

OFFER FOCUSED HUMANITIES

PROGRAMS TO ENGAGE COMMUNITIES

IN LEARNING ABOUT ARTISTS’ LIVES

AND WORKS, THE SOCIAL, POLITICAL,

AND/OR HISTORICAL CONTEXTS IN

WHICH THE WORK WAS DEVELOPED OR

THAT THE WORK REFERENCES.

ANIMATE LONG-TERM CONNECTIONS

WITH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

The Consortium fosters experiences that

change Africans’ perceptions of American

life and culture through the presentation of

public performances by African artists in

the context of multifaceted and participatory

community engagement programs.

Moreover, these programs engage American

citizens in a vision of Africa beyond the

stereotype of a perennially troubled

continent. TACAC specifically seeks to

foster humanities perspectives and public

dialogue in encounters with the artist and

the art form.

TACAC has connected thousands of

U.S. citizens in 31 cities from 21 states

to more than 50 African artists from 18

different countries to date. The artists

have performed at venues serving a broad

cross-section of performing arts audiences,

representing citizens across the spectrum

of age, ability, race, cultural background, and

socioeconomic status. The artists have led

workshops for children, youth, adults, and

taught preprofessional and general students

in university master classes and seminars.

They have met with artists and arts workers,

lectured in pre- and postshow discussions,

and engaged in colloquia with scholars.

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he emerged, and a Consortium meeting

built around his performances at the World

Performance Project at Yale University

in November 2008, was furthered by the

invitation of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

in May 2011. There, in addition to presenting

a work-in-progress showing of Body

Evidence, which invited community members

into his creative process, he also participated

in Inside The Africa Contemporary Arts

Consortium, a public reflection on TACAC

projects, partnerships, and research since

the Consortium’s inception in 2004. Okach

shared his nuanced perspective about

the ongoing challenges he and fellow African

contemporary artists face at home and

abroad to create outside of stereotyped

definitions of what makes their work

“African” or “contemporary.”

BUILDING & SHARING KNOWLEDGE

FACILITATE WORKSHOPS AND

DISCUSSIONS FOR THE FIELD.

HOST CONSORTIUM WEBSITE AND

CREATE ONLINE MATERIALS.

COMMISSION ESSAYS AND RELATED

MATERIALS PROVIDING HISTORICAL

BACKGROUND TO SUPPORT ARTIST

RESIDENCIES AND PERFORMANCES.

audiences connect completely differently

with the work when they feel like they know

the person, when they’ve had an opportunity

to understand the process and the story, and

that’s something we will continue to try and

find ways to do more successfully.”

To combat the isolation many African artists

face, TACAC also makes a point of creating

opportunities for artist-to-artist exchanges.

During the 2008 U.S. tour of Compagnie

Heddy Maalem’s Le Sacre du Printemps,

MAPP International Productions arranged a

meeting with New York City choreographers

Reggie Wilson, Blondell Cummings, David

Gordon, Susan Marshall, and Keely Garfield,

among others, for Maalem and the members

of his company, many of whom are dance

makers, educators, and arts organizers

in their home communities. In a circle of

chairs on the Dance Theater Workshop

stage, artists from both sides of the Atlantic

introduced their work, shared it on DVD, and

talked about their successes and challenges.

The artists discovered commonalities and

explored differences as they learned about

artists and works they would not otherwise

have known.

TACAC humanities events and contextual

materials seek not only to situate artists in

relation to their artistic work, but also to their

roles as citizens and leaders in contemporary

society. For example, Kenyan artist Opiyo

Okach’s multifaceted relationship with

TACAC, which has included a residency at

Bates Dance Festival, engagement through

multiple trips to Kenya by Consortium

members to The GoDown Arts Centre to

learn firsthand about the artistic community

that Okach has spurred and from which

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CREATE FILM AND VIDEO TO EDUCATE

PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC AUDIENCES.

CONVENE MEETINGS AND/OR SYMPOSIA

TO EXPLORE PARTICULAR CHALLENGES

AND CURRENT ISSUES COMMON TO

ARTISTS AND ARTS ORGANIZERS IN THE

U.S. AND ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT.

Art cannot prosper in isolation from other

forms of knowledge. We not only need to

build the language to think about art, argue

its merits, and relate to it our lives, but also

to allow us to travel beyond the conceptual

boundaries of our own life experiences.

TACAC seeks to position experimental

choreographers and their works as part

of a global flow of ideas, interacting with

worlds of their own—and others’—creation.

Recognizing that “African dance” is itself an

outsider-imposed category of performance,

many contemporary artists in and of

Africa flatly reject confining their work

to someone else’s view of “Africanity.”

These artists, like artists everywhere,

move through mobile, porous dimensions

in time and space, a global space where

worlds regularly collide.5 Such collisions

trouble the “postmodern, global framework

where the producers and consumers of

dance are…deeply entangled in a common

production of internationalism and cultural

exchange.”6 The complexity of the artists’

positioning in its intricate tensions and

transgressions defies flattening their art

form into worn categories, and has much

to teach Americans and others about global

interactions in the 21st century.

Gregory Maqoma explained in an interview:

“I am constantly expected to conform to

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presentations and symposia, serve not only

to inform local audiences, but also to educate

more broadly.

The documentary feature Movement

(R)Evolution Africa: a story of an art

form in four acts (2009), produced and

directed by Joan Frosch, and codirected

by Alla Kovgan, provides a rich entry

point for the work, and has been viewed

worldwide. Through the voices and works

of choreographers, dancers, designers,

musicians, critics, historians, and

others engaged in the growing ecology

of contemporary African performance,

Movement (R)Evolution Africa explores the

emerging and rapidly shifting contemporary

dance movement across Africa and the

meaning artists seek to make. In addition

to numerous international broadcasts, the

critically acclaimed film has been selected

for more than 200 international film festivals

including the preeminent African film

festival, FESPACO. The film is housed in

library collections worldwide, and is

used academically in universities across

North America. TACAC screened

Movement (R)Evolution Africa as an opening

night event at the Association of Performing

Arts Presenters conference in January

2008, and the film is regularly used to

contextualize performances for audiences

throughout North America.

TACAC presents regular reports to the field at

conferences such as the annual meetings of

the National Performance Network (NPN) and

the Association of Performing Arts Presenters

(APAP). We aim to create dialogue, provide

context, and build mutual understanding to

integrate learning at a deep level for both the

stereotypical perceptions of the Western

world and of African traditionalists.”

Maqoma’s framing of aesthetics lays bare

prevailing methodological and theoretical

lacunae in the study of African performance,

where unique and extraordinary subjects

may be (mis)viewed as representatives

of cultural masses, or “herds,” to use

Faustin Linyekula’s term. For example,

undifferentiated terms such as “African

dance” can facilely (mis)categorize or

silence the individual voice of the work, or

back it into a no-exit ontological web where

cultural inscription becomes its primary

value. Like Maqoma, Achille Mbembe posits,

“To be sure, there is no African identity

that could be designated by a single term

or that could be named by a single word or

subsumed under a single category. African

identity does not exist as a substance.”7

Given the thoughtfulness and intellectual

rigor that artists bring to the table, TACAC

member Vivian Phillips from Seattle Theatre

Group has asked, “How do we make a

space for the artist to say more?” It is our

quest. TACAC prioritizes lively discussion

and research to effectively advance and

disseminate the artists’ voices at the

highest professional levels. In each U.S.

community that artists visit, TACAC provides

inquisitive audiences with contextual events

and/or materials in which to situate the

creatively diverse, historically referential,

and emotionally rich work performed by the

artists. TACAC maintains a web presence

on the MAPP website with information on

artists, current tours, links to interviews and

press reviews, and articles. Essays, website

information, interviews, videos, films, and

other contextual materials, along with public

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TACAC was explicitly created as a consortium

of organizations of varying missions and

capacities, skill sets and orientations, regions

and areas of influence, aligning to access

our distinct strengths to advance common

goals. The membership is asked to meet in

person and by teleconference three times

per year, and the steering committee meets

an additional two to three times per year.

These meetings are vital to the success of the

Consortium’s ongoing activities as current

and new projects are discussed, DVDs

shared, policies refined, and future activities

clarified. The Consortium often invites

artists and other cultural workers to join our

meetings in a mutual sharing of knowledge

and experience.

The process is not neat, but it is tolerant and

vital, and responsive to the change inherent

in the lives of member arts organizations

and the field. In addition to being a founding

member, MAPP serves as general manager,

responsible for sending communications,

planning meetings, facilitating trips,

organizing fund-raising, marketing, and

maintaining the website. Since 2004,

MAPP has raised more than $600,000

for the activities of TACAC, and member

organizations have collectively invested

$3 million of their own programming

resources to Consortium activities. To date,

TACAC’s work has been recognized with

five consecutive years of funding from

the National Endowment for the Arts, and

funding from the Doris Duke Charitable

Foundation, National Dance Project of

the New England Foundation for the Arts,

Lambent Foundation, CulturesFrance/Institut

Francais, and Cultural Services of the

French Embassy.

public and arts professionals. For the fall 2007

U.S. tour of Faustin Linyekula’s Festival of Lies,

TACAC commissioned dance scholar Brenda

Dixon Gottschild to write an essay placing this

work in a context for audiences unfamiliar

not only with the artist but with the historical

references central to the performance.

Joan Frosch authored commissioned essays

to accompany the fall 2009 U.S. tour of

Gregory Maqoma’s Beautiful Me, as well as

the Bates summer 2011 residency of Kettly

Noël, Mamela Nyamza, and Nelisiwe Xaba,

among others. These resources combine to

create a critical groundwork for historicizing

participating artists, and, ultimately, to expand

the canon of performance.

SUSTAINING THE NETWORK & DEVELOPING THE INFRASTRUCTURE

CONVENE THREE TO FOUR CONSORTIUM

MEETINGS EACH YEAR, INCLUDING

AFRICAN PARTNERS ANNUALLY.

IDENTIFY PARTNERS, BOTH ON AND OFF

THE CONTINENT, TO BUILD INITIATIVES

THAT RESPOND TO IDENTIFIED NEEDS

AND PRIORITIES.

DEVELOP RESOURCES TO SUPPORT THE

CONSORTIUM’S ACTIVITIES.

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BUILDING ENDURING PARTNERSHIPS

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THINKING DIFFERENTLY In 2007, The Africa Contemporary Arts

Consortium set out to build upon the

successes of our experiential approaches to

arts exchange and to fundamentally alter the

predominant import-export model of cultural

exchange to one of equitable partnership

among American and African artists and

organizations. TACAC theorized that by

building long-term, deep associations in a

vital intercontinental network of partners

in the United States and Africa, we could

advance a model that would not only

support the goals and vision of our African

affiliates, but contribute to a more balanced

environment of global arts exchange overall.

Conceived as the “Building Equitable

Partnerships” initiative, TACAC imagined a

major international convening to rigorously

explore building partnerships based in

parity, and to report the findings back to the

field. TACAC’s passion gained momentum

and reverberated deeply among the African

network of associates we had developed.

TACAC honed in on a strategy: We would

advance relationships through the creation

of a broad-based think tank. TACAC would

engage a wide range of artists and arts

professionals across the continent and—

together—plan for the future. However, in a

series of hard but heartfelt conversations

with several longtime African colleagues, we

soon learned that our approach was flawed

and had bypassed key steps to building the

enduring relationships we sought.

THE POWER OF LISTENINGIn winter of 2008 TACAC supported

Boyzie Cekwana to join Panaibra Gabriel

Canda and Faustin Linyekula in Kisangani,

Democratic Republic of Congo, where the

three artists had gathered to work on their

Southern African network project. TACAC

requested that the artists take time during

their meeting to review and respond to the

WE ARE HERE AS A CONSORTIUM…TO IMAGINE WITH YOU A DIFFERENT

WAY OF DOING BUSINESS WHEN IT COMES TO ENGAGING ACROSS

BORDERS. AS YOU TALK ABOUT HOW YOU COME TOGETHER AND HOW

YOU’RE BUILDING YOUR NETWORKS OUT OF ORGANIC RELATIONSHIPS

THAT INVOLVE LONG-TERM CONVERSATIONS, WE SEE A SHARED

VALUE. THERE’S A PARTICULAR RIGOR TO YOUR PROCESS WHICH I

THINK IS INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING.… WE’RE HOPING WE CAN DEVISE

A BETTER MODEL OF COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT THAT’S

ONGOING AND FROM WHICH WE MUTUALLY DRAW RESOURCES…WHICH

ARE NOT ONLY FINANCIAL, BUT THAT ALSO HELP US TO ADDRESS

THE ISSUES WE’VE BEEN SHARING—THAT ARE ALSO ISSUES OF

CITIZENSHIP. —CATHY ZIMMERMAN, NAIROBI MEETING, 2010

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proposed think tank. Anticipating the artists’

enthusiastic responses, we were ready to

embark full steam ahead on the initiative.

Instead, we were stopped in our tracks.

The artists stated they had little interest in

such a grandiose plan. They explained that

they had participated in enough oversize

meetings convened by non-African entities

with few meaningful results to show. They

advised that relationships between African

organizations and TACAC had the potential

to be something more than purely artistic

exchanges, something more long lasting.

The artists sought depth, not breadth, in

exchanges. If we ultimately wished to work

together as peers, relationships would need

to be crafted based on authentic knowledge

of each other. By engaging in an honest

sharing of needs—not just asking what

the artist seeks but also stating upfront

what Consortium members seek from the

exchanges—we could advance the bilateral

value of arts exchange with potential

to move beyond funding fads or hollow

business propositions. We listened closely.

MEETING IN TUNISTwo months later another watershed

occurred. In May 2008 TACAC held a

membership meeting at the Danse l’Afrique

danse! Festival in Tunis, Tunisia, where,

in addition to seeing a wide array of

performances, 16 African artists from 10

countries agreed to convene with TACAC to

share their individual perspectives on the

values—and pitfalls—of their experiences

with foreign partnerships. These artists

too reported that large European initiatives

imposed on the continent could circumvent

their needs, if not collapse around them.

They were not moved to engage in the same

MEETING IN TUNIS PARTICIPANTS

1. Nadia Beugré, independent

choreographer, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

2. Hafiz Dhaou, Cie Chatha, Tunis, Tunisia,

www.chatha.org

3. Adetona Gboyega, Dance Meets

Danse Festival, Lagos, Nigeria,

www.dmdfestival.org

4. Thabiso Pule Heccius, Inzalo Dance &

Theatre Company, Johannesburg,

South Africa

5. Michel Kouakou, Daara Dance, Côte

d’Ivoire & Los Angeles

6. Florent Mahoukou, La Compagnie

Florent Mahoukou/Studio Maho,

Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

7. Thami Manekehla, Inzalo Dance & Theatre

Company, Johannesburg, South Africa

8. Lebohang Masimola, Inzalo Dance &

Theatre Company, Johannesburg,

South Africa

9. Aïcha M’Barek, Cie Chatha, Tunis,

Tunisia, www.chatha.org

10. Orchy Nzaba, Cie Li-Sangha,

Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

11. Opiyo Okach, Gàara Projects, Nairobi,

Kenya, www.gaaraprojects.com

12. Qudus Onikeku, Yk Projects, Lagos,

Nigeria, www.ykprojects.com

13. Esther Ouoba, Centre Chorégraphique

de Développement - la Termitière,

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso,

www.cdc-latermitiere.org

14. Maria Helena Pinto, independent

choreographer, Maputo, Mozambique,

www.dansartes.wordpress.com

15. Omar Rajeh, Maqamat Dance Theatre

and Beirut International Platform of Dance,

Lebanon, www.maqamat.org

16. Haja Franco Saranouffi, independent

choreographer, Antananarivo, Madagascar

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way with the United States. The artists were

extraordinarily openhearted, but weary and

wary of foreigners who, at times, appeared

to have invested little in building their

knowledge about Africa in their eagerness

to impose funding-driven structures. Again,

we listened closely.

“THE HUMAN BEFORE THE ART”Indeed, powerful foreign-funded arts

initiatives have long been at play on

the continent. Artists acknowledge that

European-built networks have provided

critical prestige, money, recognition,

and, sometimes, the backing of African

governments in Africa. Yet some of these

initiatives overlooked learning about

the artist and the real circumstances of

creating the work, resulting in working from

assumptions rather than knowledge. Boyzie

Cekwana pointed out the inherent paradox

of such relationships. If foreign-conceived

strategies were antithetical to learning

from the person making the art, they risked

morphing into impositions of ideas injuring

the nascent art form they meant to support,

undermining the foreigners’ understanding

of the African work as well. The message

was clear: By specifically not imposing grand

strategies, prescribed programs, or quick

fixes, but first taking the time to listen, to

engage, to experience, TACAC could learn

how best to move forward.

The artist’s daily life is complex, and even

more so on the African continent. Opiyo

Okach (Kenya) clarified that “Africa is

a place where multiple historical times

and geographical spaces converge in

one moment.” The resulting dimensions

of the artist’s worlds—and works—are

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neither to be ignored, nor “flattened out,”

as dance historian `Funmi Adewole has

cautioned.8 Indeed, Boyzie Cekwana

stated: “Circumstances in Africa, where

basic survival is still in question, call upon

artists to continue to deal with the human

condition.” To sow seeds of mutual trust

by which long-term partnerships, if not

friendships, might unfold, it was clear

that we needed to refresh perceptions on

both sides of the Atlantic. By swapping

out assumptions in favor of learning and

listening, we could more reliably assess

needs and reciprocal interests, and honor,

in the words of Cekwana, “the human before

the art.”

EYE LEVELTACAC needed to be ready to navigate

uneasy issues of race, gender, national

agendas, and hierarchies. Even as we

would dedicate ourselves to equity, our

relationships were already fraught with

layers of inequality. Economic disparity,

political instability, and challenges to

personal freedom on the African side,

among other issues, exerted forces on daily

life that were well outside the experience

of TACAC members. The wisdom of scaling

down goals and expectations to eye level,

that is, to a human connection, resonated.

Artists wanted us to learn firsthand about

their work and organizations. By entering

the personal space and daily circumstances

an artist inhabits, we could link to deeper

concerns, and build potentially more truthful

and ultimately richer relationships. TACAC

stepped back from convening the think tank

and, recognizing the assumptions inherent in

the term “equitable,” renamed the initiative

“Building Enduring Partnerships.”

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pioneer who establishes a multilayered

environment, providing the physical,

artistic, and intellectual underpinnings

upon which to build a field. By creating the

community—training dancers and future

choreographers, developing audiences,

building spaces, developing policies, and

lobbying for legislation—Pinto, like her

African counterparts, is by necessity

developing an ecosystem for the arts to

thrive. What energy remains then for her

to create work, and—oh, yes—how and on

what terms is it to be funded? Navigating

such complex realities is often the price

of operation for pioneering artists like

Pinto across the continent. These are

the truths TACAC members sought to

learn about in immersive research.

We developed a collaborative three-step

method that included intensive preparation,

an educational on-site trip of 10 days

to three weeks with African artists and

organizations, followed by reflection and

reporting back to the rest of the Consortium.

The first step included matching a TACAC

organization with an African artist/

organization, focusing, for the most part, on

artists or organizations with whom TACAC

members had worked over several years. In

exploratory conversations we considered

the reciprocal benefits of further developing

the relationship at this time. Ultimately,

each TACAC member planned his or her

immersion with the selected organization

based on mutually identified interests, to

further explore the potential affinities in arts

exchange. In some cases, the trips were the

logical next steps for relationships built over

time. In other cases, the visit was set into

motion by common interests.

The (now) human scale felt right. It recalled

the beginnings of the consortium in 2004,

and, now once again, we might build the

foundation we sought based on the varied

and diverse strengths of all involved. We got

to work.

IMMERSIVE RESEARCHIn order to more deeply understand the

circumstances for creating art in Africa, the

challenges specific African organizations and

artistic communities face, and to discover

mutually agreeable pathways to further

nurture collaborative relationships, we co-

conceptualized the idea of immersive research

trips. The plan was for individual TACAC

members to spend extended time in specific

communities, hosted by affiliated African

artists, their organizations, and constituencies.

By meeting the artists and experiencing the

circumstances in which they worked we could

refine ideas, dreams, needs, synergies, and

potentials for the future. As responsibility-

laden members of U.S.-based organizations,

our research would necessarily focus on

short-term trips. While limited, these trips

would be rigorous and move well beyond the

typical festival visit. We developed a protocol

to maximize the learning.

How else would we begin to comprehend

choreographer Maria Helena Pinto’s core

dream for the infrastructure she seeks

to build for arts and culture at the edge

of the city of Maputo, Mozambique? Like

other extraordinary cultural leaders

whose work in Africa has inspired TACAC,

Pinto’s dreams are not confined to artistic

creation. In its concordant expectations and

responsibilities, the complex role

of such an artist is the role of the

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does this mirror or deviate from U.S. ways

of working?

RESOURCES What are the resources

available now and those projected for

the future on both sides? How deep and/

or consistent are those resources?

How reliable? What role could the U.S.

organization and TACAC as a whole play in

this arena that would be appropriate and

respectful?

POTENTIALITY Based on the learning

of both the U.S.- and African-based

organizations, what potential projects, ideas,

and collaborations could be developed

and sustained over time? What projected

expectations would there be for the artist?

TACAC?

OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES What

circumstances have arisen during the visit

that might change the TACAC member’s

thinking or perception about the African

organization and the opportunity for

developing a collaborative relationship?

In the third step of the process, the TACAC

member reflected and reported on the

visit, sharing results with the artists

and organizations in Africa, Consortium

members, and their own constituencies.

The documentation of the research formed

the basis for planning the next step of the

project and for our reports to the field,

including this publication. Two notable

examples of TACAC’s immersive research

trips are Marjorie Neset of VSA/North

Fourth Art Center to Maputo, Mozambique,

hosted by Panaibra Gabriel Canda and

CulturArte, and Cathy Zimmerman of MAPP

The second step was one of on-site learning.

Individual TACAC members spent extended

time in specific communities, hosted by

African artists/organizations, to carry

out respectful investigations of need and

interest, and to seed long-term partnerships.

During each of these immersive trips,

members spent time learning how their

hosts and colleagues navigated their

daily lives as creative artists, educators,

community leaders, and family members.

Members were introduced to a wide range of

people in each place—from local government

employees to a broad range of cultural

workers and educators—to gain a fuller

understanding of the complex milieus in

which artists create.

Since different artists with different goals

in different countries hosted the individual

visits, TACAC developed a common

framework for engaging and reflecting with

the host. Each TACAC member attended to

six areas of investigation in consultation

with the host artist/organization:

MISSION AND VISION What is the mission

of the organization? What is its relationship

to its artists and to its community? What

does the organization desire for itself vis-

à-vis an exchange opportunity? Is there a

perceived value for a relationship with a

U.S.-based partner that is more complex

than simply performance opportunity?

ARTISTRY What is the artistic vision and

trajectory of the company/organization?

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE What

is the organizational structure? What is the

decision-making process? To what extent

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International Productions to Kisangani and

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo,

hosted by Faustin Linyekula/Studios Kabako.

MAPUTONeset first heard about Panaibra Gabriel

Canda through Boyzie Cekwana during

Cekwana’s visit to New York City in

January 2008. The previous summer,

MAPP’s Ann Rosenthal had met with

Cekwana during a research trip to South

Africa and subsequently TACAC invited

him to participate in a conversation about

international cultural exchange at the annual

APAP conference. Cekwana shared the

plans he and Gabriel Canda had developed

to link their countries in long-range creative

projects including connecting with peers

in other countries of the Southern African

Development Community (SADC).9 He

also spoke about the Independence Project,

CulturArte’s ongoing program involving

teaching artists and a group of dancers with

and without disabilities. Neset’s organization,

VSA/North Fourth Art Center, is an affiliate

of the international organization on arts

and disability. She wanted to learn more.

She recognized an opportunity to link her

organization’s work with that of CulturArte

in an exciting and expanded opportunity for

exchange and learning.

In November 2008, Neset, along with Bryn

Naranjo, VSA’s dance program coordinator,

traveled to Maputo for an immersive research

visit hosted by Gabriel Canda and CulturArte.

Her trip was planned to coincide with a return

visit of Cekwana so that she would benefit

from the perspectives and insights of both

artists. While in Maputo, Naranjo, a specialist

in dance and disability, worked daily with both

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in New York City. Interviews with Studios

Kabako manager Virginie Dupray and the

performers were conducted and filmed,

along with the performances, for the

documentary Movement (R)Evolution Africa:

a story of an art form in four acts and to build

archival records to encourage research

in contemporary African performance.

Throughout the tour, Linyekula engaged

not only with American peers in arts and

culture, but with diverse citizens, including

the University of Florida student dancers on

whom he set work. Linyekula found people

hungry to learn about him, his creative

process, and the context of his art making

in the DRC. Building upon the momentum of

these successes, Studios Kabako returned in

May 2007 for residencies in preparation for

the October 2007 tour of Festival of Lies, a

work dealing with the complex and turbulent

history of the Congo.

In October 2009, Faustin Linyekula/Studios

Kabako hosted MAPP’s co-director Cathy

Zimmerman in Kisangani and Kinshasa,

DRC. While Linyekula was engaged in the

day-to-day processes of building an arts

center, directing and choreographing for

his company, producing film and music,

Zimmerman observed his quotidian struggle

to regenerate hope in a community that had

all but lost it. She was left both awestruck

and sobered by the drive and fortitude of

Linyekula and his company. In a journal entry

during her immersive trip, Zimmerman wrote:

October 22, 2009. Faustin also worries about

artistic freedom, as freedom of expression in

general is very much in danger these days

under Kabila; and there have been times when

choreographers on the Independence Project.

Naranjo conducted extensive training and

Gabriel Canda and his dancers choreographed

the work. Ultimately the Independence Project

was performed in Albuquerque, NM, and

Neset reported the work’s resonance for

her organization, which is dedicated in great

measure to the advancement of creativity of

people of all abilities:

I am pleased to report that Independence

Project was presented at Global DanceFest

2009 and was a major success. It is one of

the most powerful dance pieces I have seen,

and almost the first that included dancers with

disabilities in a way that didn’t make the work

all about disability.

KISANGANI AND KINSHASA TACAC’s relationship with Faustin Linyekula

and Studios Kabako dates to 2003, just

prior to the formation of the Consortium.

In May of 2005, TACAC members traveled

to Paris to meet with Linyekula and to

see the work of a host of young African

choreographers he had curated for a festival

at the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin.

Later that summer, Linyekula and Studios

Kabako arrived in New York for their North

American debut. In a seven-week visit to

the U.S., including a three-week tour of

Linyekula’s Triptyque sans Titre produced

by MAPP in partnership with TACAC,

Linyekula was hosted in creative residencies

at Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, Long

Island, NY; Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston,

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Faustin was told he was in danger. This is due

mainly because Faustin and Studios Kabako

are gaining in reputation and influence. In

fact, Faustin has been told that if he ran for

Parliament, people here would vote for him.

Two weeks ago, a political prisoner, a

close friend of Faustin, was suspected of

inciting against the government and the

government confiscated his notes, cell phone,

and computer. Since he was in contact with

Faustin, it was feared that Faustin and his

family might be in danger. The affair was

later cleared and Faustin stayed put. Still, I

cannot imagine working as an artist under

such conditions and Faustin, at times, finds it

difficult to continue.

MEETING IN NAIROBIAs a culmination of a three-year process

of immersions, research travel, and

discussion, TACAC organized the November

2010 Building Enduring Partnerships

meeting hosted by the The GoDown

Arts Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. We were

determined not to backtrack to the

grandiosity of the think tank concept.

Instead the meeting would focus on what

we had learned and how, together, we

could best move forward to accomplish

what we could not do alone. In sum, we

sought to craft an enhanced and articulated

relationship between TACAC and our

African colleagues, one that would

acknowledge our different contexts and

agendas, and create a pathway to our work

in the future.

At the urging of the artists who had guided

us thus far, we came together in Nairobi

as a small working group—to enable us,

MEETING IN NAIROBI

PARTICIPATING FROM AFRICA

1. Boyzie Cekwana, Floating Outfit Project,

Durban, South Africa

2. Virginie Dupray, Studios Kabako,


3. Panaibra Gabriel Canda, CulturArte,

Maputo, Mozambique

4. Faustin Linyekula, Studios Kabako,


5. Joy Mboya, The GoDown Arts Centre,

Nairobi, Kenya

6. Judy Ogana, The GoDown Arts Centre,

Nairobi, Kenya

7. Opiyo Okach, Gàara Projects, Nairobi, Kenya

8. Maria Helena Pinto, Dans’Artes, Maputo,

Mozambique

INVITED BUT UNABLE TO ATTEND

1. Gregory Maqoma, Vuyani Dance Theatre,

Johannesburg, South Africa

2. Salia Sanou, Compganie Salia nï Seydou/

Centre de Développement Chorégraphique –

la Termitière, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

PARTICIPATING FROM THE U.S.

1. Philip Bither, Walker Art Center,

Minneapolis, MN

2. Laura Faure, Bates Dance Festival,

Lewiston, ME

3. Ken Foster, Yerba Buena Center for the

Arts, San Francisco, CA

4. Joan Frosch, Center for World Arts,

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

5. Marjorie Neset, VSA Arts of New Mexico/

North Fourth Art Center, Albuquerque, NM

6. Vivian Phillips, Seattle Theatre Group,

Seattle, WA

7. Ann Rosenthal, MAPP International

Productions, New York, NY

8. Cathy Zimmerman, MAPP International

Productions, New York, NY

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in Faustin Linyekula’s words, to “feel our

way around the conversation in a safe

environment.” Maintaining the human scale

of the Nairobi event had meaning for each of

us since the benefits of working at this scale

had proven indisputable.

We set four goals for our two-plus days

together in Nairobi: Engage in deep dialogue

that reflects concerns, interests, and artistic

and social endeavors for all involved; move

toward a networking model that allows for

consistent activity and ongoing planned

exchanges on both continents, virtually

and in person, to include an identified and

formalized consortium of African artists

and organizations; lay foundation for new

connections and opportunities among artists

on the continent; and formulate strategies

for moving forward.

TACAC members hoped our process in

Nairobi would bring full circle the emergent

methodology developed over the past

several years. We knew we had experienced

a profound shift in ourselves that had

impacted not only how we interacted with

African artists and organizations but also, to

a surprising degree, our own organizations.

Invested in the idea that TACAC would

“fundamentally alter the predominant

‘import-export’ model of cultural

exchange to one of equitable partnership

between American and African artists

and organizations,” we wanted to clearly

demonstrate our successes to our funders,

to the field, and to ourselves. Yet the

profound shifts we had experienced to date

were not easily quantifiable. We trusted that

by further shaping our processes together in

Nairobi, we could surely arrive at concrete

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outcomes. We wanted the meeting to result

in solid decisions for strategizing clear next

steps. The pressure was on.

DAY ONEIt became immediately apparent that

Americans had much to learn from Africans

about inventing models of support for

contemporary performance in communities

where there are few financial resources,

little popular support, and few venues for

presentation. The African members of

the working group exhibited an inspiring

entrepreneurial spirit that used art as a

means to activate a community—to open

dialogue, reengage the imagination, and

create educational and job opportunities for

young people. Notably, their goals reached

beyond engaging the public as audiences

for their work to creating environments that

empower their communities to creatively

shape their own futures. Faustin Linyekula

summarized the imperative: “Let’s create an

art center, create and show work…and what

it means to be a citizen in the place.”

Amid the excitement of the first day of

meetings at The GoDown Arts Centre, we hit

a nerve. We had hired an outstanding Nairobi-

based facilitator, Yvonne Owuor, whom

Ken Foster had met during his immersive

research in Nairobi the previous year. While

MAPP had carefully prepared her for the

meetings, Owuor was still at a disadvantage.

The working group participants were familiar

with one another, but not with her. She also

had to get through a tightly packed two-

day schedule while maintaining a sense of

inclusion and open dialogue in the spirit of this

group’s “organic” dynamic. Further, since we

were conversing across English, Portuguese,

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the artist at varied stages of a career; the

recognition of the person inside the art;

the rethinking of issues of infrastructure

and art making, ranging from the rehearsal

studio and performance space to creative

entrepreneurship with imagined impacts at

scales of the community and city; and the

cultivation of responsibility and citizenry

through artistic practice.

Participants pondered the foibles of foreign-

imposed competitive festival formats that

propelled young, often minimally prepared

African artists onto the scene, while mature

artists without structures or means to

continue their journeys were left to hold

the weight of training the next generation

on their shoulders: “It’s an Africa-wide

question,” Opiyo Okach stated. The complex

interplay of developing young artists, fueling

creative advancement for established artists,

and building infrastructure, if not a field,

dominated a good portion of the discussion.

Joy Mboya, artistic director, The GoDown

Arts Centre, relayed her overview:

I see 12 vanguard choreographer/dancers on

the continent at this stage; I see them bearing

a full load; I see they cannot afford to stop

because they will create their own void. I see

that they need to create their own work. I see

that they also need to help build the rest of the

field. How do you support that vanguard of the

creators of…contemporary arts.… Their backs

will have to break, but we have to make sure

they don’t completely collapse…we have to

support them so their backs don’t break.

If the future of the enterprise rests on so

few, and the few are unsupported, how

and French, translation was going to make

time more challenging to manage. Owuor set

ground rules. To kick off the meetings she

gave participants a time allotment to introduce

their statement of purpose to the group. But

the 16-person group proved too large to be

able to follow up presentations with urgent

questions. In stark contrast to the investment

in dialogue that had brought us to this point,

the group began to feel not only rushed but

silenced. Frustration mounted.

A fearless truth teller, Linyekula insisted

we honor the journeys each of us had made

to authentically interact. Indeed, we had to

trust the creative trail we had embarked

upon several years earlier. With trust

comes tolerance—and the freedom to make

mistakes. TACAC had corrected course

before and, in real time, we did so again.

Facilitator Yvonne Owuor recalled:

The provocations of the morning conversation

forced the space to allow a deeper and more

organic engagement, the evolution of which

stretched time but focused on the deep issues,

the open questioning and web of response and

responsiveness. In this, are there signals for the

kind of network and relationship sought among

us? In the space that emerged…away from the

structure first proposed, are there clues to what

we all want? And if that is the case, what is its

character, what is it proposing, and how can it

be sustained?

As we relaxed the structure, the meeting

unfolded into a creative interaction of

stirring questions, real conversations, and

frank reflections. Day One brought forth

a weave of concerns: the development of

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German architect Bärbel Müller, broke

ground in 2010, a full nine years after he

had first framed its foundation in thought.

Would building a mental infrastructure

prepare one to build and sustain a physical

infrastructure?

The American participants absorbed the

relevance of a mental infrastructure to support

building audiences for African contemporary

work in the United States. Deep dialogues and

attention to what the artist has to say could

shift stubborn paradigms. As artists build

physical structures to protect and grow the

work on the continent, mental structures to

engage with the work could simultaneously be

built in the U.S.

Ken Foster of Yerba Buena Center for the

Arts explained further:

The Consortium’s development is a recognition

that simply putting the African artist on the

stage is not enough, and that our role in the

accountability piece is to serve as the translator,

to serve as the advocate. The role is not only

important, but it is much larger than we ever

imagined. We just saw ourselves as performing

arts presenters; we didn’t think of ourselves as

citizens’ arts advocates.

Marjorie Neset of VSA/North Fourth Art

Center concurred:

The things I feel the most pride in are the

connections we’ve established with artists from

can they create, tour, build infrastructure,

produce, manage, and thrive? Boyzie

Cekwana drew a powerful parallel for the

participants to consider:

I am a big, big fan of wildlife television. I like

to watch lions, I like to watch zebras, and

giraffes. I don’t have them in my backyard,

so I watch them on television.… A female

zebra under duress—if she’s pregnant—will

automatically abort. There’s a survival

mechanism that puts the mother’s life ahead

of the fetus…because her life is much more

valuable to the continuation of the species than

the unborn fetus…. She will…go into heat again

and produce others.

There’s a need to support young people for

sure, for many different reasons. But there is a

greater need to support the center so the center

is sustainable, and it works and it functions.

The 12 artists that Joy was talking about…

are the female zebras. These are the people…

that need to hold the reins so we can start to

develop the grains of sand.

If not addressed, what would the dilemma of

“female zebras” portend for the development

of the art form into the future? Would

constructing bricks-and-mortar creative

centers such as the ones Maria Helena

Pinto, Panaibra Gabriel Canda, and Faustin

Linyekula were busy planning ease or

exacerbate the burden of these innovators?

Linyekula proposed the value of building

a sturdy “intellectual infrastructure” first.

The name of his company, Studios Kabako,

was itself a play on imagining “studios” in

which to create even if they did not (yet)

exist. His emergent Kisangani-based arts

center, designed in collaboration with CH

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the day, Foster asked if we could move to

a vision taking us beyond “us and them”

language to a “we.” The topic would carry us

into our remaining goals for Day Two of the

meeting.

DAY TWOOn Day Two, we still had three goals to

accomplish: Move toward a networking

model that allows for consistent activity

and ongoing planned exchanges on both

continents, virtually and in person, to

include an identified and formalized

consortium of African artists and

organizations; lay foundation for new

connections and opportunities among

artists on the continent; and formulate

strategies for moving forward. To guide our

vision for the future, Owuor asked us to

consider ways we could intersect to aid one

another in accomplishing goals; to assess

what we were collectively willing and able

to do; and consider possible resources.

In sum: “What do we want from each

other moving forward?” If building mental

infrastructure foregrounded the support for

the physical infrastructure, what could we

imagine together?

The GoDown’s Judy Ogana cut to the

chase. What would membership in The

Africa Consortium mean for the African

organizations? She asked the group to

consider how an “African side” would fit

into the whole picture for the Consortium.

The artists’ responses led away from

fixing a formal structure and notions of

“membership.” None of the artists saw

value in setting up as the “representative

of other [African] artists out there.” Okach

softly stated that since “we were only

this continent. In our rather isolated community

of Albuquerque our population of Africans

and African Americans is two percent.... It’s

bringing work…to a population with literally no

personal connections of heritage.

Vivian Phillips of the Seattle Theatre Group

also spoke about how TACAC reframes the

presenter’s role to nurture and challenge

audiences: “I think it is our responsibility

as citizens to hold our communities

accountable for the kind of work that we

are attempting to create and to bring into

relationship.” Linyekula reminded the group:

“Werner Herzog said only poets could have

brought East and West Germany together.

Politicians could not do it.” In this view, art

making (and presenting) becomes a practice

of freedom.

Yet if we were to bring new minds to

the stage, we would also have to bring

new thought into how to do it and hold

ourselves accountable. MAPP’s Ann

Rosenthal brought up the critical need for

finding balance between the intangible

benefits of artistic exploration and market

concerns. How can we make African

contemporary work more viable in the

American market? Could TACAC by

example open new doors and impact the

prevailing presenting attitudes? Mboya

asked the artists to ponder the question:

“Why do you want to be on that [American]

stage?” Clearly, resolve had to be strong

on all sides.

Day One had succeeded in reaching our first

goal: “Engage in deep dialogue that reflects

concerns, interests, and artistic and social

endeavors for all involved.” At the end of

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getting to know each other” the notion of

membership seemed premature, and that

it felt “more like the ‘America Consortium

for Africa.’” Ouch. That smarted, but it gave

all of “us” clarity. The weight of formalizing

African membership in TACAC began to

dissipate, not unlike the earlier think tank

concept. Creative engagement bubbled up in

response.

“The idea of…friendship first…put people

at ease,” Ogana later observed. For

artists seeking economic and artistic

survival, wasn’t a flexible, friends-based

sharing responsive to resonant goals

and opportunities more sustainable than

(yet another) burden of a formal, weighty

structure? By continuing to move forward

in an informal network with projects

initiated by individuals or a group we would

engage a more essential dynamic rooted in

action. Further, the passionate networking

efforts among the artists intracontinentally,

such as the Southern African network that

Panaibra Gabriel Canda, Boyzie Cekwana,

Faustin Linyekula, and others had explored

could also integrate with TACAC’s activities.

To embrace the metaphor of acupuncture

offered by Linyekula, a stimulation of one

point could serve to stimulate the system

as a whole. We were on to something.

The space of encounter, thus decentralized,

energized the collective imagination.

Cekwana pointed out that friendship was,

in fact, the best foundation for the future

because it implied choice and an equitable

relationship, to be sharply distinguished

from the perceptions of European models,

approaches, and influences as hierarchical.

Okach looked to deepening relationships

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can live off work. We can afford to keep going.

Ninety percent of our money comes from

touring. We can also support others’ works.

While TACAC was focused on developing

deep and long-term engagement that moves

beyond “just performance opportunities,”

the artists reminded us that touring is not

only key to survival but also to the greater

enterprise of creativity. TACAC could

respond by building a deeper knowledge

base and greater infrastructure to advocate

more broadly for this work in the U.S.

presenting market, in addition to producing

and curating. Thus, while enhancing

performing opportunities would not be

the beginning and end of the relationship,

it was a critical piece of a more complex

connection. This thinking portended not

only a shift in cultural exchange practices

from import-export, but an emergent

vision of the currency of art and human

relationships rooted in common cause.

REFLECTIONWe entered the meeting seeking to

emerge with confirmed African partners

and immediate next steps, but found a

complexity and richness of human purpose

beyond metrics. To recap: Did TACAC

“move toward a networking model that

allows for consistent activity and ongoing

planned exchanges on both continents,

virtually and in person, to include an

identified and formalized consortium of

African artists and organizations”? Yes,

we moved toward our goal, but, no, we

did not formalize membership. Did TACAC

“lay foundation for new connections

and opportunities among artists on the

continent”? Yes. Did TACAC “formulate

in a creative and flexible infrastructure

facilitating connection and exchange. If we

were adaptable to current and ever-shifting

realities, we could prioritize responsiveness,

rather than fixity. Gabriel Canda offered the

importance of connecting across issues—not

just because of African location or identity.

Maria Helena Pinto spoke of her continuing

affinity with the organic interactions of

TACAC, which was part of what attracted her

to the organization in the first place.

The sum of these comments suggested

a structure that is nonhierarchical,

heterogeneous, and alive in movement,

with axes and connections forming and

reforming. Indeed, given the growing

number of organizations working and

developing relationships on both continents,

such decentralization could stimulate

creative clusters of activities, if not a critical

mass to quicken the change we all sought.

More concretely, however, if these artists

sought economic, artistic, and intellectual

survival to pursue their dreams in Africa,

support was critical. Not the sort of

“support” which would indicate to artists

what, how, or with whom to do their

work, but rather support that is based on

real needs and goals as identified by the

artists. Linyekula stated that international

touring was the lifeblood for his emergent

enterprise in Kisangani, which includes

music production, film production, the

choreographic and training work of Studios

Kabako, and more. Linyekula was clear that

international exposure works:

Studios Kabako is a privileged company in the

dance world—not just the African world—that

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strategies for moving forward”? Yes,

but not in a formulaic way. Rather, we

sustained the analogy of acupuncture,

where each of our actions would impact

the whole. It was a healing concept, one of

connection, which would allow each of us

to contribute to “a network of long-term

collaborations of like-minded artists to

move their works forward with an elevated

sense of consciousness.”

Creativity is resurgent, eminently renewable,

and never finite; it is the ultimate human

reserve to be valued, if not explicitly

nurtured. We as artists and cultural workers

must awaken to the opportunities and new

responsibilities of our unique resources in

the global moment. For example, it is not

improbable that the artists’ innovations

cultivate human capacities, which may not

only advance artistic expression but also

stimulate creative economies, fostering

broader goals of sustainability, development,

and self-determination. Indeed, as the

artists contribute to intra- and international

trade, they also seed the imagination, a

key resource in a new economy where the

importance of the elastic, the unlimited,

the intangible has been assessed. Lala

Deheinzelin, senior advisor, Creative

Economy Programme, Special Unit on

South–South Cooperation, writes that we

are at the brink of seismic shift, “a transition

from a time when life was organized around

material, tangible matters to an era when the

intangible plays an increasingly central role…

and can open the way to more inclusive

models based in cooperation.”10 In the words

of Laura Faure, TACAC seeks cooperation

that is not “about product, but a notion of

humanity.”

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Upon his return to the ruins of the postwar

city of Kisangani, Faustin Linyekula asked,

“How can we…imagine things for ourselves?”

From the hope-filled days of the 1960s and

1970s when newly formed nations across

the continent supported national ballets as

embodiments of self-determination, to the

despotic manipulation of those symbols

to propagandize at the level of the body

(think Mobutu), to the French intervention

of the early 1990s with such arts initiatives

as MASA, or the competition known today

as Danse l’Afrique danse!, a new era has

emerged in African performance. It is led by

the citizen-artist. French-Togolese cultural

journalist Ayoko Mensah has noted that

artists, unlike most politicians, “represent an

Africa that works.”12 Their potential impact

on civil society should not be undervalued.

The structures artists create—both mentally

and physically—make space for experiments

in democracy to unfold.

When we founded The Africa Contemporary

Arts Consortium in 2004, our question

was not dissimilar to Linyekula’s: “How

can we…imagine things for ourselves?” We

recognized that the established paradigm of

global arts exchange had to change. While

we also knew many of the reasons why it

did not work, we did not know how best

to revise it. The successes of our early

activities in this stirring African era of

artistic practice propelled us to dig deeper.

The practices honed in the Building Enduring

Partnerships initiative irrevocably upended

our thinking. Not only did the project help us

to redefine a praxis for working creatively

and effectively with artists from other parts

of the world, but it contributed to deepening

the practices of each member institution.

Leaping beyond the standard presenting

paradigm for working with African artists,

we encountered a role larger and more

compelling than any of us had anticipated.

In a reversal of the standard consumerist

approach to global art exchange, touring

OVER THE LONG TERM, INTERNATIONAL ARTISTIC INTERACTIONS

ENHANCE KNOWLEDGE AND CORRECT STEREOTYPES. THEY

BUILD TRUST BETWEEN ARTISTS, ARTS PROFESSIONALS AND

AUDIENCES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, AND AS A RESULT FOSTER

A MORE OPEN ENVIRONMENT FOR DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL

RELATIONS. MUCH IS MADE THESE DAYS ABOUT THE VALUE OF

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD. FAMILIARITY

WITH OTHER CULTURES IS NOT JUST A HALLMARK OF A ROUNDED

HUMAN EXISTENCE. IT TRANSLATES INTO TANGIBLE SKILLS AND

ADVANTAGES INSIDE AN INCREASINGLY DIVERSE GLOBAL ECONOMY.11

—ANDRÁS SZÁNTÓ, THE CENTER FOR ARTS & CULTURE, 2003

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Americans alike, perceived the 2010 meeting

in Nairobi as an exclusive gathering. It

was. In order to maintain the deep level of

exchange we sought, we risked exclusion.

We trust the value of that decision has been

made apparent by this narrative, since we

have emerged with a methodology that

TACAC—and others—may practice (and

improve upon) with artists and organizations

everywhere.

We have committed to sharing our processes

more vigorously through documentation

and public forums. Truth be told, we have

criticized ourselves over time for failing

to apply our rigorous internal standards

for communication to the greater public.

Thus not only will we continue our cyclical

reports back to the field in conjunction

with the annual APAP conference in New

York, other professional gatherings, and at

individual institutions, we will also seek to

engage more broadly with cultural workers,

policy makers, practitioners, educators, and

public communities.

We will, of course, continue to prioritize

dialogue with, and presentations by,

artists. We will all seek coherence with the

concerns of the citizen-artist in collaborative

ventures such as the October 2011 TACAC

symposium in New York City, Dialogues

Across Culture: A Model for Building

Enduring Partnerships. This symposium

was organized by MAPP in partnership

with Columbia University’s Institute for

African Studies and the Museum for African

Art; Faustin Linyekula and Maria Helena

Pinto participated. Fully aware that the

problems of the creative sector—including

getting laboratory time, creating physical

has become the flower of TACAC’s

engagement with artists, not the seed. The

genesis of the seed and its nourishment—

human connection—cannot be overlooked.

It roots the entire ecology and sets it into

motion. From an economic standpoint,

touring is a critical end point of the

ecological chain of creativity, stimulating

each link down to its source. The arts

ecology that is nourished by connections

across the continent and by connections

on issues that matter to artists and other

citizens around the world is another

framework for global exchange. It is

decidedly not an import-export model,

where hierarchies are so “naturalized” that

fairness is perceived as largesse, rather

than best practice. However, to reroute the

standard dynamic of how “(over)developed

nations” interact with less financially

privileged nations is to take on the tidal

wave of globalization—an impossible task.

But by prioritizing conversations among

equals that take place on a human scale,

avoiding grand, hierarchical, or prescriptive

approaches to “problem-solve” or “fix,” a

process of change may be contemplated for

everyone involved.

Building this narrative has provided

TACAC a rich opportunity to reflect on

the intersection of our goals, activities,

foibles, and future. Further, it provides

artists, arts organizations, funders, and the

greater field an inside view of our efforts.

Such transparency is timely. For example,

some members of our field, Africans and

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involved. The points of intersection will not

only stimulate and strengthen the whole,

but extend like roots to strengthen others’

efforts. As such, we are already engaged in

opening the network to other organizations,

including artist-driven intracontinental

networks. To coherently support our reach

we will be mindful of capacity and continue

to foster our commitment to depth and

relationship. We are reminded of our initial

conversations leading to immersive research

and we trust the results.

Acknowledging the power of one and the

power generated when those ones join

together exemplifies the best work of The

Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.

The passion, purpose, and distinctive

professional acumen of individual members

is the heartbeat of TACAC, giving life to

hallmark practices of deep and engaged

listening, learning, and sharing, coupled with

real-time assessments of goals and needs

to move our praxis forward. Our model has

set into motion internal changes—at the

personal and organizational level, as well

as in the relationships we continue to build.

We may fumble, but the trust we have built

and the bonds of experiences we share hold

us in mutual good stead. So while TACAC’s

praxis is intuitive and organic, there is really

nothing “natural” about it. It is learned,

practiced over and over in a wide range of

contexts, and learned again.

Now our practices more frequently

approximate our language. In our early

days, we assumed we could do great and

lofty things. Today we assume less but do

more, or at least more deeply. Because our

model asks for depth, breadth may falter.

infrastructure, building communities

and markets, engaging different sectors

of community, stabilizing finances, and

planning for the future, just to mention

a few—are faced by creative agents

worldwide, we need to continue to ask

what’s working where and what relevance it

may hold across disciplines and the world.

African artists’ lessons learned, successes,

and best practices can contribute deep

regional thinking to stimulate new global

thinking. Given the yawning gap of

resources, the creativity index it takes to

achieve what artists on the continent have

achieved to date is an extraordinary story.

It should compel and inspire artists—and

citizens—everywhere.

TACAC has also put mechanisms in place

to foster a multidirectional exchange of

information that will more effectively

connect our activities to those of other

similarly impassioned organizations and

funders. Making good on our commitment

to enhancing African artists’ platforms in

the United States, TACAC is committed to

inviting African artists to speak, discuss, and

share their experiences with U.S. audiences

and to historicizing and disseminating

their stories. Our deepening engagement,

documentation, Internet presence, and

presentations will build a bridge to new

opportunities. As we encounter parallel

commitments in other organizations, they

will not only add value and meaning to our

praxis, but provide the potential for greater

returns on investment for us and for artists

in Africa and in the United States. In this

process, we want to continue to capitalize on

the founding strength of the Consortium: the

diversity of the individuals and organizations

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an entity but as a practice. For all of these

reasons, and more, the TACAC model may

not take off as the next quickly adopted

trend. But if one stops to ponder the soft

power of the model, it can be understood as

nothing less than a revision of the modern

global encounter, and that is a practice the

world urgently needs.

The model also moves slowly. Yet TACAC

has taken to advancing at a human pace, and

its processes are strengthened by the space

allowed for research, discussion, change, or

creative diversion. Further, the relationships

we have formed have taken years to build

and—like any friendship—will never be

static. Thus we do not think of ourselves as

ENDNOTES

1 Okwui Enwezor and Chika Okeke-Agulu, Contemporary African Art Since 1980. (Bologna: Damiani, 2009), 11.

2 Souleymane Koly, “A Hard Nut to Crack.” Crossroads 1: On Interculturalism, edited by Mark Deputter, 1.7-1.11. (IETM: Brussels. www.alkantara.pt/pdfs/crossroads1eng.pdf., 2003), 9.

3 Achille Mbembe, “African Contemporary Art: Negotiating the Terms of Recognition,” Interview by Vivian Paulissen (Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism: JWTC 2009). http://jhbwtc.blogspot.com/2009/09/african-contemporary-art-negotiating.html (Accessed October 1, 2009).

4 120 M/h press materials, October 12, 2008, MAPP International Productions, NY.

5 Documents emerging from “Danse: Langage Propre et Métissage Culturel” (hosted by the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse, Montreal, Canada, 1999), “Crossroads I” (IETM, Brussels, Belgium, March 2003—concurrent with Africalia) and “Crossroads II” (IETM, Birmingham, UK, October 2003), “African Contemporary Dance? Questioning Issues of a Performance Aesthetic for a Developing and Independent Continent” (Johannesburg, South Africa, 2004), “Africa Moves” (New York, USA, 1995), “Movement (R)Evolution Dialogues: Contemporary Performance in and of Africa” (Gainesville, Florida, USA, 2004), Africultures (1999–2010), “Diary of a Schizophrenic Dancer,” the blog of Nigerian choreographer Qudus Onikeku (2008–2010), to name a few, have advanced early theoretical discussions of the field of contemporary performance.

6 Susan Kart, Review of Castaldi, Francesca, Choreographies of African Identities: Négritude, Dance, and the National Ballet of Senegal. H-AfrArts, H-Net Reviews, July 2006, 3. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12061 (Accessed December 20, 2006).

7 Achille Mbembe, “African Modes of Self-Writing,” Public Culture 14 (1): 239-273. (2002): 272.

8 `Funmi Adewole in Movement (R)Evolution Africa: a story of an art form in four acts, produced and directed by Joan Frosch, codirected by Alla Kovgan. (Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources, 2009).

9 The Southern African Development Community (SADC) currently has a membership of 15 member states: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. http://www.sadc.int/ (Accessed September 21, 2011).

10 Lala Deheinzelin, quoted in “Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option,” Creative Economy Report 2010 (Geneva/New York: UNCTAD-UNDP, 2011): 248 box 9.5. http://www.beta.undp.org/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2011/03/30/les-industries-en-rapport-avec-la-crativit-et-la-culture-rsistent-mieux--la-crise-conomique.html (Accessed April 15, 2011).

11 András Szántó, “A New Mandate for Philanthrophy? U.S. Foundation Support for International Arts Exchanges,” (The Center for Arts & Culture, 2003).

12 Ayoko Mensah, “An ‘Ambassador’ of Cultural Diversity,” Interview by Eyoum Nganguè and Anne Perrin, in West African Perspectives: Resources for Development. (Sahel and West Africa Club/OECD and ECOWAS, 2009), 86.

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TACAC ORGANIZATIONSADVANCING A DYNAMIC EXCHANGE OF ARTS AND IDEAS AMONG

ARTISTS, ARTS ORGANIZATIONS, AND PUBLIC COMMUNITIES OF THE

UNITED STATES AND AFRICA

BATES DANCE FESTIVAL

LEWISTON, ME

WWW.BATESDANCEFESTIVAL.ORG

CENTER FOR WORLD ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

GAINESVILLE, FL

WWW.ARTS.UFL.EDU/CWA

THE JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR

THE PERFORMING ARTS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

WWW.KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG

MAPP INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS

NEW YORK, NY

WWW.MAPPINTERNATIONAL.ORG

NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL

ATLANTA, GA

WWW.NBAF.ORG

SEATTLE THEATRE GROUP

SEATTLE, WA

WWW.STGPRESENTS.ORG

VSA ARTS OF NEW MEXICO/

NORTH FOURTH ART CENTER

ALBUQUERQUE, NM

WWW.VSARTSNM.ORG

WALKER ART CENTER

MINNEAPOLIS, MN

WWW.WALKERART.ORG

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

WWW.YBCA.ORG

U.S. MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS

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BOYZIE CEKWANA/

FLOATING OUTFIT PROJECT

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA

PANAIBRA GABRIEL CANDA/

CULTURARTE

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE

FAUSTIN LINYEKULA & VIRGINIE

DUPRAY/STUDIOS KABAKO

KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

WWW.KABAKO.ORG

GREGORY MAQOMA/

VUYANI DANCE THEATRE

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

WWW.VUYANI.CO.ZA

JUDY OGANA & JOY MBOYA/

THE GODOWN ARTS CENTRE

NAIROBI, KENYA

WWW.THEGODOWNARTSCENTRE.COM

OPIYO OKACH/GÀARA PROJECTS

NAIROBI, KENYA

WWW.GAARAPROJECTS.COM

MARIA HELENA PINTO

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE

WWW.DANSARTES.WORDPRESS.COM

AFFILIATES IN AFRICA

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ANDRÉYA OUAMBA/

COMPAGNIE 1ER TEMPS

SENEGAL

BOUCHRA OUIZGUEN/

COMPAGNIE ANANIA

MOROCCO

BOYZIE CEKWANA/

FLOATING OUTFIT PROJECT

SOUTH AFRICA

CIE 2K_FAR DANCE COMPANY

MOROCCO

COMPAGNIE LA BARAKA

ALGERIA/FRANCE

WWW.ABOULAGRAA.COM

COMPAGNIE TCHÉTCHÉ

CÔTE D’IVOIRE

DAUDET GRAZAÏ FABRICE

CÔTE D’IVOIRE/FRANCE

FAMILIA PRODUCTIONS

TUNISIA

WWW.FAMILIAPROD.COM

FATHY SALAMA AND ORCHESTRA

EGYPT

FAUSTIN LINYEKULA & VIRGINIE

DUPRAY/

STUDIOS KABAKO

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

WWW.KABAKO.ORG

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AFRICAN ARTISTS/ COMPANIES WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN TACAC TOURS AND CREATIVE RESIDENCIES

WE HAVE ENCOUNTERED AND BEEN INSPIRED BY DOZENS OF ARTISTS

ACROSS THE AFRICAN CONTINENT AND AROUND THE GLOBE AT FESTIVALS,

PERFORMANCES, AND ARTISTIC GATHERINGS. THESE ARTISTS HAVE SHARED

WITH US THEIR LIVES AND HOPES AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THEIR ART.

WE HAVE STAYED IN TOUCH WITH SOME, HAVE PLANS TO CONNECT AGAIN

WITH OTHERS, AND THERE ARE ARTISTS WITH WHOM WE HAVE YET TO

CONTINUE A DIALOGUE. TO ALL THESE ARTISTS—TOO MANY TO MENTION

HERE—WE WISH TO EXTEND OUR THANKS. YOU HAVE FED OUR PRACTICE

AND INFORMED OUR LIVES.

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GERMAINE ACOGNY/

COMPAGNIE JANT-BI/

ECOLE DES SABLES

SENEGAL

WWW.ANTBI.ORG

GREGORY MAQOMA/

VUYANI DANCE THEATRE

SOUTH AFRICA

WWW.VUYANI.CO.ZA

HAFIZ DHAOU & AÏCHA M’BAREK/

COMPAGNIE CHATHA

TUNISIA

WWW.CHATHA.ORG

HEDDY MAALEM/

COMPAGNIE HEDDY MAALEM

FRANCE/ALGERIA

WWW.HEDDYMAALEM.COM

KARIMA MANSOUR/

MA’AT FOR CONTEMPORARY DANCE

EGYPT

WWW.KARIMAMANSOUR.COM

JUDY OGANA & JOY MBOYA/

THE GODOWN ARTS CENTRE

KENYA

WWW.THEGODOWNARTSCENTRE.COM

JULIE DOSSAVI/

COMPAGNIE JULIE DOSSAVI

BENIN/FRANCE

WWW.CIE-JULIEDOSSAVI.COM

JONATHAN KHUMBULANI NKALA

ZIMBABWE/SOUTH AFRICA

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KETTLY NOËL/

DONKO SEKO

HAITI/MALI

DONKOSEKO.ORG

KOFFI KOKO

BENIN

LUCKY KELE

SOUTH AFRICA

MAMELA NYAMZA

SOUTH AFRICA

MARIA HELENA PINTO/

DANS’ARTES

MOZAMBIQUE

WWW.DANSARTES.WORDPRESS.COM

MICHEL KOUAKOU/

DAARA DANCE

CÔTE D’IVOIRE/U.S.

NADIA BEUGRÉ

CÔTE D’IVOIRE

NAWAL

COMOROS

WWW.NAWALI.COM

NELISIWE XABA

SOUTH AFRICA

WWW.NELISIWEXABA.CO.ZA

OPIYO OKACH/

GÀARA PROJECTS

KENYA/FRANCE

WWW.GAARAPROJECTS.COM

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PANAIBRA GABRIEL CANDA/

CULTURARTE

MOZAMBIQUE

WWW.CULTURARTEMZ.BLOGSPOT.COM

QUDUS ONIKEKU/

YK PROJECTS

NIGERIA/FRANCE

WWW.YKPROJECTS.COM

SALIA SANOU/

COMPAGNIE SALIA NÏ SEYDOU/

CENTRE CHORÉGRAPHIQUE DE

DÉVELOPPEMENT - LA TERMITIÈRE

BURKINA FASO

WWW.SALIANISEYDOU.NET

VINCENT SEKWATI KOKO MANTSOE/

ASSOCIATION NOA -

COMPAGNIE VINCENT MANTSOE

SOUTH AFRICA/FRANCE

WWW.VINCENT-MANTSOE.COM

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE & HANDSPRING

PUPPET COMPANY

SOUTH AFRICA

WWW.HANDSPRINGPUPPET.CO.ZA

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88

Building Enduring Partnerships: A Report to the Field is published by

MAPP International Productions and The Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium.

This publication was made possible with generous support from

the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Cover photograph: Nelisiwe Xaba in Correspondances. Photograph by Eric Boudet.

Title page photographs: (Left) Compagnie TchéTché in Dimi. Photograph by Wolfgang Weimer.

(Right) TACAC members and affiliate artists at The GoDown Arts Centre, Nairobi, Kenya,

2010. Photograph by Philip Bither.

©2011 by MAPP International Productions.

140 Second Avenue, Suite 502, New York, NY 10003

646-602-9390; www.mappinternational.org

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written

permission from the publisher

Publication concept, design, and printing: Four32C

BUILDING ENDURING


THE FIELD THE AFRICA

CONTEMPORARY ARTS

CONSORTIUM

Written by Joan D. Frosch, Ph.D.


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building enduring partnerships: a report to the field

Documents

arts center

arts organizations

arts international

performing arts

godown arts centre

african contemporary

affiliate artists

wilson center