Deadline: 1 August 2019
The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) is pleased to announce its Regional Fund for supporting projects that involve collaborations between arts and culture entities from at least two of the five North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) but may also include additional partners from the rest of the Arab region, Africa, and beyond. However, the applicants (two or more) must be based in at least two different North African countries.
The North Africa Cultural Program (NACP) is a three-year program (2019-2022) launched by AFAC and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The program is dedicated to the five countries of North Africa- namely Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt – and comprises two support schemes, a National Fund and a Regional Fund. Together, the two funds aim to strengthen independent arts and culture entities (institutions, collectives, networks, spaces…), encourage regional collaborations, and focus on supporting distribution, circulation and dissemination of artistic works in all fields.
Regionally, the program supports artistic projects that are created regionally; the distribution, dissemination and circulation of artistic works and productions to broad audiences; the documentation, archiving and sharing of data, knowledge, and contemporary practices in arts and culture; as well as exchanges on the development of frameworks for arts and culture education and cultural policies.
Projects under this support scheme encompass the various artistic fields of film, visual arts, performing arts, and music, in addition to multi- and inter-disciplinary initiatives. Moreover, collaborations with civil society organizations are encouraged so long as the main applicants are active in the arts and culture field.
The Regional Fund aims to strengthen long-term joint projects and regional exchanges. Single outputs like film, performance, exhibition, musical album, etc. are not covered by this grant. For the latter, consult other AFAC general grants’ programs.
Program Areas
The Regional Fund grant scheme provides project support for either one or all of the following support areas:
- Programmatic collaborations, including but not limited to:
- Residencies
- Trainings
- Platforms
- Research-based exchange programs
- Distribution, dissemination and circulation initiatives whose goal is to connect art productions with audiences in the Arab region, including but not limited to:
- Existing regional distribution platforms such as Festivals, Biennials, Digital Distribution Platforms etc.
- New/alternative distribution initiatives, such as those making use of digital technologies as a way to spread creative work
- Cultural and artistic programming by networks/coalitions of spaces in the different North African countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt) and beyond
- Attached workshops with audiences (especially young audiences) that aim to cultivate appreciation for the arts
- Projects supported under this scheme must be complemented with marketing and promotion strategies and audience engagement plans that ensure the project’s outreach.
- Documentation, archiving and sharing of data, knowledge, and contemporary practices in arts and culture, including but not limited to:
- Market and audience mapping and documentation
- Initiatives that render archives and documentation accessible to artists, practitioners, and scholars for the production of publications, art works, performances and scholarly research Studies, programs, collaborations and creation of networks and joint projects
- Development of frameworks for arts and culture education, cultural policies, and a critical discourse on the arts in the region, including but not limited to:
- Networks/collectives/coalitions/civil society organizations exchanging and developing cultural policy frameworks in the North African countries
- Initiatives that develop regional frameworks for arts and culture education, be it a plan to integrate arts and culture education in school curriculums or models for alternative art academies
- Advocacy work related to areas of cultural policies and art education
About the Grant
- The Regional Fund provides a total grant between $150,000 and $300,000 per grant, to begin in December 2019 / January 2020 and end by March 2022.
- Applicants can apply to one or all four of the project support areas but the maximum budget is not to exceed $300,000.
- The total running and staff costs should not exceed 30%.
- Applicants are encouraged to show other streams of funding. The jury reserves the right to determine the amount of the grant and the relevant proposed expenses.
- Proposed activities and institutional strengthening components must be completed within the duration agreed to in the signed contract, during which grantees are expected to submit the necessary financial and narrative reports.
- Each institutional applicant is entitled to one application under the North Africa Cultural Program.
- Applicants rejected in the first round of submissions (August 15 deadline) are not eligible to re-apply to the second deadline.
- Recipients of the Regional Fund grant cannot apply for other AFAC programs before the end of their current grant.
Eligible Candidates
- The program is open to receive applications from arts and culture:
- Organizations
- Collectives
- Exhibition platforms
- Spaces (with programming having potential wide outreach and connectivity)
- Consortia of diverse local institutions, led by an arts and culture organization
- Networks
- Social enterprises whose main field of work is arts and culture
- For this particular program, institutions with an open grant in another AFAC program can apply.
- AFAC will not consider applications submitted by:
- Individual applicants
- Organizations of less than two years in operation.
- Members of the Board of Trustees of AFAC, their business partners or family members.
- AFAC staff members, their business partners or family members.
- Members of NACP readers and jurors’ committees.
Evaluation and Selection Process
- Following the submission deadline, AFAC will conduct an eligibility check to ensure that applications are complete and adhere to the guidelines. Only applications that pass the eligibility check will be sent to an independent jurors’ committee which will assess and choose the entities to be granted.
- Announcements for the first deadline are issued in October 2019. Announcements for the second are issued in January 2020.
- An automatic email will be sent to applicants who were not selected to receive grants.
- AFAC is not obliged to cover the total amount of the requested grant.
How to Apply
- Applications are only accepted through their online call for applications which is available on their website. Applications submitted via regular mail or e-mail will not be accepted.
- The applicant will receive a confirmation email once the online application has been received. Applicants are advised to follow up on the full completion and delivery of requested material as AFAC will not contact applicants if any part of their application is incomplete.
- Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration.
For more information, please visit https://www.arabculturefund.org/Programs/26