The Arts of Africa and the Global Souths* programme invites artists and scholarly writers working in the visual and performing arts to apply for residencies hosted by the Fine Art Department and the NRF SARChI Chair in Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Unique to the RAW residency programme is the possibility for a team, made up of an artist and a writer, to apply for a joint residency that explores the relationship between art production and writing. Priority will be given to artists and scholarly writers based on the African continent or within the global South, in order to shift the tendency for artistic and cultural production based in the South to be theorised by writers based in the global North. The writer and artist will have the opportunity to engage directly with each other. The object of this engagement is either for the writer to publish an article or essay on the artist’s work while the artist continues with her or his practice, or for the writer and artist to choose to co-author an article or essay relevant to their respective work and interests.

THERE ARE THREE APPLICATION OPTIONS:

1)      A team of one artist and one writer may apply for a joint residency of 6 months in total

2)      An individual artist may apply for a 2 month residency

3)      An individual writer may apply for a 4 month residency

COSTS COVERED:

Accommodation, flight, a per diem and limited research costs will be provided. Additional costs for any applicable permits or visas will be covered by the artist or writer. A letter of invitation will be provided for the required visa application.

DATES OF RESIDENCIES:

Residencies will take place between the beginning of August 2017 and the end of December 2017. For the team residency, the artist’s 2 months must overlap with the writer’s 4 months so that they can work closely together.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Please send the following information to arts.africa@ru.ac.za and s.kabwato@ru.ac.za by May 15, 2017:

1. A comprehensive CV
2. An application form
3. A proposed project you will work on during the residency (2-5 pages)
4. A portfolio of recent work if applying as an artist (PDF)
5. A list of previous exhibitions if applying as an artist
6. A list of previous publications if applying as a writer
7. A sample of relevant published work if applying as a writer (PDF)
8. A proposed publishing platform** (journal, edited book or catalogue) if applying as a writer
9. An explanation of proposed collaboration if applying as a team (1-2 pages)
10. A copy of your ID document/s or passport/s
11. Proposed months of the residency

For further information, please email the PROSPA Administrator and Research Coordinator, Shirley Kabwato (s.kabwato@ru.ac.za) or the SARChI Research Chair Ruth Simbao (r.simbao@ru.ac.za).

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

May 15, 2017

* The Arts of Africa and Global Souths programme consists of the NRF SARChI research programme and the Mellon PROSPA (Publishing and Research of the South: Positioning Africa) programme. RAW was founded in 2014, and the current residencies are funded by the Andrew W. Mellon foundation.

** Please note that the aim of this writing residency is to publish in a journal, edited book or exhibition catalogue, and acceptable publishing platforms do not include websites, blogs or newspapers.

Image: SANE Nsubuga, What Can Europe Do about the Migrants? (detail), 2015, Mixed media, 140 cm x 90 cm. Courtesy of the artist.