In association with one of its funding partners, Africalia, Arterial Network hereby calls for applications for support for projects that decentralise access to African creative goods and service.

By "decentralisation", is meant
a. touring products or disseminating creative goods and services beyond the major centres of a particular country to second cities or rural areas;
b. touring creative products or disseminating goods and services from one country to another country or to a number of countries i.e. building regional markets, which at the same time facilitates exchange and/or collaboration between different artists;
c. providing access to the arts to people, communities or marginalised groups who may not traditionally have access to these.

Essentially, it's about building new audiences or markets on the one hand, and on the other, realising Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that affirms the right of everyone to participate in, and have access to the arts.

The maximum grant will be in the region of 12 000 Euros and should be regarded not as the sole support for the project, but to catalyse further funding if required. The project must be completed by 30 November 2011, although, hopefully, it will leave a legacy beyond that time.

We will seek to ensure that there is at least one project per African region, but ultimately, the best projects - those that most show the potential to realise the manifold aims - will be selected.

Only registered members of Arterial Network may apply.

Applicants should include:

a. an outline of the project;

b. an indication of how it will meet the aims of decentralisation outlined above;

c. the location/s of the project;

d. the time framework in which the project will be initiated and end;

e. the projected legacy of the project;

f. the leaders/organisers/facilitators of the project and their experience in this regard (provide copies of their CVs);

g. a motivation for how the project will realise the aims of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the AU's Plan of Action on Cultural Industries, in building regional/national markets for creative goods and services and/or how it will realise the human rights goal to make the arts accessible to those who do not generally have access to the arts;

h. an indication of the date when they registered as members of Arterial Network;

i. any other information deemed relevant to the application.

Please send applications to info@arterialnetwork.org by 26 November 2010.