The first meeting of the IFACCA African Chapter was held in Harare, Zimbabwe on 29 April.
Inaugurated at last year’s World Summit on Joburg, South Africa, the Chapter comprises IFACCA’s national members from the region. Nine of IFACCA’s 16 national members in Africa were able to attend the meeting.
Priorities for the African Chapter, arising from the meeting, included: raising independent funds; building capacity within arts councils and the creative sector; building strategic national, regional and international networks and partnerships; and advocacy. Members also discussed current IFACCA projects including research into arts advocacy campaigns, IFACCA’s research programme, and the forthcoming 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture to be held in Melbourne, Australia on 2-6 October 2011.
The meeting took place during the Harare International Festival of Arts. We would like to thank Elvas Mari of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe for hosting the meeting and IFACCA’s Deputy Chair, Quresh Ahmed (Kenya) for chairing the meeting. We would also like to thank Mike van Graan and the African Arts Institute for organising the meeting, and the Arterial Network for generously assisting with costs.