Following intensive training since October 2015, eleven participants from World Cultures Connect workshops in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific have been selected to convene in the UK for a networking week to showcase their work during the Edinburgh Festivals and Visiting Arts annualInternational Producers Breakfast in partnership with Creative Scotland.
During their time in Edinburgh the participants will be involved the World Cultures Connect Professional Exchange workshop day alongside Scottish artists and cultural managers, which will draw on the experience and ideas of participants to seed new collaborations, share resources and cultural insights. They will also receive a special opening reception where they will have the opportunity to network with key stakeholders.
The training programme forms part of a larger project, Culture Works Connections, connecting artists across Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific to international networks, led by Visiting Arts, in partnership with The Africa Centre, South Africa, The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Trinidad and Tobago, and The Pacific Arts and Culture Foundation in Suva, Fiji. The initiative is funded by the ACP Cultures+ ACP-EU Support Programme to ACP Cultural Sectors, financed by the European Union and implemented by the ACP Group of States, and aims to build a community and lasting network of creative businesses in more than fifteen countries in the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa over three years from 2014-2017.