Investing in Culture to Support Growth and Development

The European Commission supports a variety of cultural projects as it believes that investment in the arts, whether cinema, theatre, visual art, music or dance, can contribute positively to achieving economic and social development objectives.

Over a period of five years, the EC is projected to spend some 30 million euros on cinema, audio-visual and literary works, dance, theatre, music, etc. in the African Caribbean and Pacific region according to Denis Salord Head of Regional Programmes, Sub-Saharan and ACP-wide. It’s money well spent, he says.

“It is proven in economic studies that culture is a big vector for economic and social development,” said Mr Salord. “It creates jobs, services are exchanged and it enables the diffusion of good practice.”

EC support to culture is not just about the artistic product but seeks to develop capacity in all stages of the production process, in building distribution networks and in offering technical and entrepreneurial training.

At a recent lunch time conference in Brussels, representatives from two culture projects currently receiving funding from the EC -Cinetoile and ARTerial Network – presented their activities and objectives.

Cinetoile

Cinetoile is a project set up by Africalia and co-funded up to 84 % by the European Commission.  The main aim of the project is to encourage the promotion and distribution of African films in Africa.

“African audiences, for the most part, don’t get to see African films,” said Cinetoile’s Aurelien Bodinaux. “We want to change that.”

With their partners, Cinetoile selected five African films to represent the diversity and values of African cinema and then organised a series of screenings with associated seminars meetings and other activities in locations across the continent.

Cinetoile has eight partners across Africa, in: Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Kenya, Mali, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

ARTerial Network

This pan-African network seeks to revitalise Africa’s cultural assets by bringing together networks of NGOs, creative industry companies, festival organisers and individual artists. The EC has been co-funding  up to 82 % some of the network’s activities for the last two years.

“One of the key deficiencies [we] identified [in Africa] was a lack of information. People didn’t know what was happening in their own country, let alone the country right next door to them, let alone across the continent,” said Mike Van Graan Secretary General of ARTerial Network.

Launched in 2007, ARTerial Network aims to build markets for the distribution of cultural goods and create a network of like-minded and energised organisations and individuals working in this field.

ARTerial Network produces a monthly newsletter in English and French and have produced a directory of African cultural contacts. They have amassed over 2000 network members and presently operate some 22 national chapters across the continent.

“It’s about trying to develop regional and international markets for artists,” said Mr Van Graan, “both to provide African perspectives on what is happening in the world but also to generate income for those artists to be able to survive, given the lack of support from their own governments.”