Arterial Network celebrates its fifth anniversary - 7 March 2012

Arterial Network, a Pan African network of artists, cultural activists, creative enterprises and others engaged in the African creative sector, today celebrates its fifth anniversary since its founding conference on Goree Island, Senegal in March 2007.

Under the banner "Revitalising Africa's Cultural Assets", delegates from 14 African countries at the conference identified the lack of information, poor government policy and institutional frameworks, weak civil society structures, the marginalisation of artists and the arts, an absence of funding and a dearth of leadership as among the key challenges confronting the African creative sector.

Rather than depend on their respective governments, it was agreed that arts practitioners, arts managers and all those who were involved in and sought to make their living within the African creative sector, would take responsibility for themselves and their livelihood. Thus was born Arterial Network, a civil society network owned, directed and managed by African creative practitioners, arts administrators and cultural entrepreneurs.

Read more on [www.arterialnetwork.org] and [www.artsinafrica.com]