The Biennial of Arts and Culture 2012 will be held in the city of Mopti. In order to prepare for the event, the Ministry of Culture decided to convene all stakeholders: presidents of regional assemblies, regional governors and governors of the District, regional directors of culture; heads of cultural offices and other stakeholders (former ministers of Culture and the former managing director of the Biennale, among others).
This Mopti Forum will also focus on the Week of National Cultural Heritage. The biennial arts and cultural event is a national event supported by policy-makers. The event was born of the desire to preserve and promote the cultural identity of Mali in all its diversity. The Biennials have promoted the strengthening of social cohesion and contributed to the emergence of a culture of peace and citizenship.
The Week of cultural heritage was created in 1976 by the government to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of the country. It takes place each year around a specific theme. For this year, the Ministry of Culture, through the National Heritage management, decided to focus on the inventory of cultural heritage by performing the official launch of the large project of cultural heritage of Mali running since the adoption of terms of reference in May 2008.
The meeting of Mopti was funded by the Project capacity building and promotion of cultural action of the Spanish Cooperation for Development in Mali. There are a set of goals: improving the new configuration of organization of the biennial; capacity building of executives in the region, development of public-private partnerships around the organization of the biennial; accuracy of the role of stakeholders in the organization of the biennial; replay of Statutory Instruments of the Biennale.
The official opening of the forum was held in the conference room of La Cambre of Commerce and Industry of Mopti. It was chaired by Hamane Niang, Minister of Culture. He was followed by Amadou Cisse Kessou, elected in Mopti, representing the President of the High Council of the community of Mali, Toumani and Seydou Camara, the governor of the region.
The forum was overshadowed by the death of the President of the Regional Assembly of Kidal Ag Assalat Abdul Salam, in a traffic accident. He was en route to Mopti when his vehicle overturned at the entrance to Gao. Hamane Niang asked for a minute's silence in his memory.