Art Moves Africa Grants (Mobility Fund of Artists & Cultural Operators within Africa).

Application deadlines:

1 January (before 6:00 PM WAT*): for the travels planned from 1st March onward
1 May (before 6:00 PM WAT): for the travels planned from 1st of July onward
1 September (before 6:00 PM WAT): for the travels planned from 1st of November onward
†
*WAT: West Africa Time

As a rule, specified projects should begin at least EIGHT weeks after a deadline.

Art Moves Africa (AMA) aims to facilitate cultural and artistic exchanges within the African continent. AMA offers travel funds to artists, arts professionals and cultural operators living and working in Africa to travel within the continent in order to engage in the exchange of information, the enhancement of skills, the development of informal networks and the pursuit of cooperation.

I- Geographical area of focus:

Art Moves Africa supports all artists and cultural operators living and working in Africa for travels only from an African country to another African country, and between the five African regions.  These regions are:

Central Africa:     Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao TomÈ and Principe

East Africa:    Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda

Southern Africa:    Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

West Africa:    Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, CÙte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo

North Africa:    Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara

II- Application process:

1- to request a travel support, applicants must fill in carefully an application form available on AMA web site, answer all the questions and explain the objectives of their travel.
Application forms have to be sent by email only to the following address: [email protected] before a deadline (Please see below for deadlines)
Applications are individual, they must be sent by the person planning to travel. Companies (Dance, music and theatre groups) planning to travel for a performance are welcomed to apply, with a limit of three people maximum. However, each one of the three members must fill an individual application form, which could be sent by the manager or administrator of the group
Please do not send the text of your motivation and of your professional background in separate attached files, because your application will be rejected.
Please do not send any other attachments with the application, except for the invitation letter.
N.B: if you don’t have an invitation letter, please don’t hesitate to send your application. Invitation letter is mandatory, only, in case your application is selected
Please send the application ONLY in word format.
Are automatically rejected: applications not fitting within one of deadlines, collective applications, incomplete, hand written, scanned and PDF format applications, as well as applications not respecting AMA format and updated documents.

2- after sending the application, applicants will receive an automatic e-mail confirming the reception and the date when they will get an answer from AMA Office.

Once every four months, a selection committee reviews and selects the applications. The committee is comprised of professionals working in the cultural sector in Africa, with knowledge of diverse artistic fields in the different regions. Applications are evaluated based on their individual merits but referring to established criteria (see below).

The applicants are replied to after six weeks of the deadline.

Art Moves Africa supports only the costs of travel, visa and travel insurance for the duration of stay. AMA will not support fees, accommodations, or per-diem.

Art Moves Africa supports the travel of artists and cultural professionals working in the following artistic fields:
Performing arts : theatre, dance, story telling…etc
Music
Visual arts
Cinema
Literature

Art Moves Africa encourages participation at any event which enables:

• Collaborations with other professionals
• Exchange of information and activities
• Elaboration of projects, practices and ideas
• Improvement of artistic or technical skills
• Discovery of different artistic fields through: cultural professional network meetings, festivals, artists’ residencies, workshops, seminars, lectures, work sessions
• Artists to demonstrate the long term effect of their project
• Artists to share their experience by encouraging networking in their own country
• Professionals seeking wider access to international networks to enhance their careers.

Due to limited funding Art Moves Africa cannot support:

• More than one trip per year per person
• Travel within the same country
• Travel for big productions (rehearsals …)
• Transport of art works (exhibitions…)
• Touring of big companies (performances during a festival or a theatre season, touring of shows). Only small scale performances (maximum three people) will be able to apply for travel support
• Professionals travelling on behalf of governmental institutions, highly established organisations, or commercial companies
• Academic research and training
• Fulltime students and amateurs.

III- Granting process:

1- if an application has been selected for support, the grantee will receive a letter with details on granting procedures and necessary info to be provided, by grantee, within specific deadlines, in order to book flight tickets and prepare agreements.

2- upon reception of trip information, AMA office will book the flight and send the booking to grantee for confirmation.

3- afterwards, both the grantee and the host organisation will receive an agreement from AMA office for signature. Upon reception of signed agreements, AMA office will send the e-ticket to the grantee.

Please note that:
flight tickets (economy class) are booked and paid directly by AMA office. Visa and travel insurance expenses are transferred upon providing quotations from recognized insurance company you must contact the Embassy of the destination country at least two months before departure to know the procedures for the visa.

In case you get an AMA grant, please don’t hesitate to ask our office, for a support letter to facilitate your visa application the grant will be cancelled if the grantee and/or the host organisation fail to fill the grant guidelines and deadlines to respond to AMA office.

4- stipulated in the contract is an agreement that obliges grantees upon return to the resident country to send receipts of visa and/or travel insurance expenses of their trip to AMA’s office and write a short report about their experience. Some of these reports will be placed on AMA and Mobility Hub Africa websites to present them to a wider audience and showcase personal stories and experiences.

Adherence to contract obligations is considered an important criterion when reviewing future applications by individuals who were previously accepted for support.

IV- Application deadlines:

1 January (before 6:00 PM WAT*): for the travels planned from 1st March onward
1 May (before 6:00 PM WAT): for the travels planned from 1st of July onward
1 September (before 6:00 PM WAT): for the travels planned from 1st of November onward
†
*WAT: West Africa Time

As a rule, specified projects should begin at least EIGHT weeks after a deadline.

V- Important to know:
Due to financial recession and cutting of support for arts and culture, the number of grants allocated during each session is limited. AMA team is working hard to look for various funding resources and advocate for artistic mobility in Africa. We count on your support and your understanding. We encourage you, however, to not hesitate to apply for AMA mobility grants.

AMA encourages individuals to continue applying even if previously rejected.

CONTACTS:
Only if you need help or if these guidelines don’t answer your questions, please contact: [email protected]

Otherwise, applications must be sent to: [email protected]
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Please don’t hesitate to make suggestions to help us improve AMA guidelines.