African Colours Newletter: Banking on Art

Once more an interesting and thought provoking article from the African Colours Newsletter. Not sure how I think or feel about the programmes described here, but have a read yourself.

Banking On Art
The search for alternative funding for the arts

By David Kaiza

Photos by Maggie Otieno and Caroline Kaminju/AfricanColours.net

If things don’t go well in Mali, a lot of artists could end up losing their refrigerators and television sets in the coming years.

To put it differently, if things go well in Mali and much of Africa, artists could end up losing their refrigerators and television sets in the coming years.

It is not an arty paradox, but a matter of perspective in the continuing search for the most sustainable way to fund the arts.

The Dutch funding agency, the DOEN Foundation, together with its Norwegian counterpart, the Strømme Foundation, are carrying out a feasibility in Mali which if successful, would see artists on the continent borrow money form Microfinance institutions to fund their work.

With the ground-breaking study, the Foundation is trying to find out if the Microfinance sector, which has been credited with lifting millions out of poverty, can also lend money to fledgling artists who cannot afford to pay for airtickets, venues, paints and brushes.

Speaking at the World Summit on Arts and Culture in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ms. Gertrude Flentge, the programme manager culture and media / sustainable development of the DOEN Foundation, said that her organization, in conjunction with the Strømme Foundation, is looking for two alternative sources of funding through a study in West Africa.

Microfinance - or as it is sometimes described, banking for the poor – made it possible for the poor to borrow money by cutting out the arduous, traditional mortgage requirements by lending money against communal promises or simple but valued household items like television sets and refrigerators.

More often than not, artists do not have the business portfolio nor the assets that banks demand, in order to get access to loans. Secondly, art has not always been seen as a business activity requiring balanced books and auditing processes.

The second model which the Foundation is evaluating is what they call Africa Unsigned. Modeled on the successful Sell-a-Band, a funding mechanism by which musicians sell shares to their funds for work-in-progress and use the proceeds to pay for professional production, it hopes that money for the arts will itself come directly from the listening public.

Funding for the arts was one of the major topics at the World Summit on Arts and Culture held in the South African commercial capital, Johannesburg. While on the one hand, the current funding mechanism by which Western donor foundations channel money to poor, mostly African countries was criticized by speakers at the summit as “ghettoisation” of culture in poor countries, the very donor organizations, such as the DOEN Foundation also said they are trying to find ways by which the arts in Third world countries can be self-sustaining.

“We always ask our projects to become sustainable because we withdraw our funding in 7-9 years,” Gertrude Flentge said at discussion on financing.

At the same session, Mr. Arturo Navarro, Professor on cultural policies at Universidad de Chile presented a third alternative mechanism that operates through a public/private partnership by which among others, arts councils and directorates can become landlords, owning property – mostly museums and theatres that generate income by renting out space to private businesses. While the concepts are exciting, Ms. Flentge said that the challenge of the study they are carrying out, which started in April 2008, is to find what she called a “niche where microfinance and cultural sectors meet on their own terms.” “On their own terms” is often what is difficult, for art – and specifically the production of it – has never seemed like a viable, bankable activity that results-oriented banking executives get excited about and it is ways of making the case that art is bankable that the study is trying to establish. By their nature, Microfinance institutions tend to be short-term lenders, and the DOEN-Strømme initiative is looking to developing lending facilities that would possibly be one-of opportunities for artists who need to fund a tour, obtain travel documents, buy materials and cover the costs of exhibitions. The pilot study is looking at costs as low as $200 – 2000 as short term loans and up to $ 10,000 as relatively longer term loans. However, as preliminary results show, the Microfinance institutions are not willing to give up guarantees and because of this, artists borrowing money will find that they have to go through the same rigors as ordinary borrowers by staking household items like television sets, fridges and computers – items that can be recovered should the loan payment default. They can also receive loans through the verbal guarantees of relatives and respected individuals in communities or cooperatives. Loan facilities can be have both fixed and flexible maturation periods. But for it to work, both the artists and the bankers would have to know more of the other side’s work. Because of this, the Microfinance bodies involved in the pilot project are learning about the processes of art, which they in turn are teaching artists financial skills such as book-keeping and accounting. The Microfinance alternative would cover all kinds of arts. But one alternative mechanism that would be more useful for music is also undergoing pilot test in the DOEN- Strømme collaboration. SellaBand (www.sellaband.com) is an American initiative that has attracted such music groups and artists as Public Enemy and Chris Jones circumvents big label monopoly by selling shares or subscriptions to music fans, which money pays for the production process. It is seen as a way of giving a hand to fledgling, unsigned acts but also as a protest against record company monopoly. Through the website, www.africaunsigned.com, the initiative is asking fans (who listen to a sample of the music) to contribute money to artists whose work they like and would like to support. According to the website, when the money contributions reach $25,000, then the artists go ahead and record an album. The contributing fans are then entitled to proceeds from sale of the music. The question for these initiatives is the dilemma between culture and commerce and related to it, the more subtle differences between what Flentge calls “stimulating an economic movement” or creating an “entrepreneurial subsidy”. Flentge, who said public funding for the arts will continue to be a major part of funding for the arts, paused the key question: “The most important question is did the loan promote art or did it push artists to become more commercially minded?”

African Colours Interview with Hama Goro

This is Hama Goro, the cultural manager of Soleil d’Afrique speaking with David Kaiza in an interview that was published by African Colours. He talks about his impression of the role of visual arts in his home country Mali – especially as compared to the success of African musicians in and outside Africa. And, I was wondering whether some of this also applied to Nigeria. From my limited experience I thought there were some parallels. Anyway, here some excerpts, only the bits that resonated with me in one way or the other. You can find the whole interview here.

Hama Goro is the Cultural Manager of Soleil d’Afrique, based in Mali. He is a painter as well. He attended the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture in Johannesburg, South Africa and spoke to AfricanColours in this interview with David Kaiza. He discussed the disparity between the success of his country’s performance art – particular the world famous Malian music - and the struggling visual arts. (image courtesy of African Colours ... aright, didn't actually ask them but hope they don't mind and here's the link)

Kaiza: What is the artistic scene in Mali like?

Goro: In Mali and Africa in general, culture has a very important developmental role. If you take music in Mali – there are so many Malian musicians inside and outside the country – with big names and big performances. Culture brings a lot of money to Mali. It is a factor in the country’s development.

Art occupies a very important part in the Malian economy – music, fine art, sculpture – all these are the arts practiced in the country. Many people make a living doing art.

Let me give you the example of Oumou Sangare. She has her own hotel. She sells cars and she got all of this from her music alone. Many musicians from Mali are invited worldwide and this brings Mali up. Of course, for every successful musician, there are many who struggle and have problems making a breakthrough.

Kaiza: What is the place of the visual arts?

Goro: If you take the visual arts, you see that it is hard to make an impact in the country with it. We don’t have a local market for this. Only a few visual artists are able to make a living. Some try and give up. Some continue. Some go to do other things. For many artists, it is very difficult to make enough money to even buy materials.

Kaiza: Why the disparity; why is the music performing so well and the visual arts so badly?

Goro: I think it has to do with our traditional heritage. Take Griot. It is a tradition of singing, music about history and this has power in society. If the Griot musician comes to your house and he sings about your history, you give him some money. Even if you are poor, you still find some money to give him.

This concept developed over time and now anyone who can sing is given the opportunity to sing. In the past, to become a Griot, you had to come from a family of Griots. Because of this folklore tradition, people understand the music instantly.

You take visual arts. Before, we were doing visual arts but it was not done as art for art’s sake. It was done for symbolic, social reasons. But then the Arts School arrived, brought by Europeans who defined in their own terms what art was, how it was supposed to be done. This was not reflective of popular opinion. There was a divergence of interpretation. People were not in. There were out. It became a matter of doing what the European wanted.

In contrast, music was locally defined. There is no divergence between the interpretation of music and the popular opinion. With music, there was historical and cultural continuity.

Kaiza: In your opinion then, how can the Visual Arts connect with the people?

Goro: We are still thinking about how we visual artists can connect with the people. I am an artist. I have managed a cultural centre for 10 years. I have organized workshops and exhibitions. All along, I have been constantly thinking about the problem, how to connect with the people. I have not had a very good response so far. Of course, people are beginning to come awake to the Visual Arts, beginning to see that it can define them and the way they are living.

Kaiza: How can Art Schools, Artists and Galleries address this problem? This is after all, a problem that is felt in all of Africa?

Goro: […] I think Art Schools should play a different role to the one they are playing at the moment. I think they have to continue teaching students the basics of how to draw and mix colour. This is fine. But they have to invite the public to participate in what they are doing. They should see their role differently. They must communicate the meaning of art to the public. They have to communicate that the artist’s job is not just technical.

Thirdly the artist […] Discuss your art. Art is not just about drawing and painting. Art is also conceptual. Be more aggressive. Take your art out to the public. Create interaction between your art and the public. Today, the idea of the artist confined to the studio does not apply. We should go out and have a discourse with the public. If the public does not listen to you today, they will listen tomorrow.

Kaiza: How can the visual arts learn a lesson from music?

Goro: Where I live [sic], I think about this situation and what happens elsewhere. In Mali, the public thinks Visual Art is only for Western people. The challenge is how to disprove this idea. As I have said, music in Mali has to do with our traditions. For the visual art, we should induce the public. We have to find ways to make them see that the art is for them as well. We as artists should visit schools and introduce art when people are still young.

Kaiza: Are summits like this one useful for Africa?

Goro: Look at the list of sponsors for this summit. Are there any African sponsors? No. This is the problem. Our governments and communities don’t support art. The ministries of culture don’t get enough allocation in the budget to support art because we in Africa don’t believe in art. Our governments, our politicians, all don’t believe in art.

[…]

Mr. Goro’s work and cultural centre can be visited on www.soleildafrique.org

I thought the music – visual arts parallel he was drawing was quite interesting. Here some of my thoughts:

His thesis is that: Contemporary music is rooted in local musical traditions. In contrast contemporary visual arts, and I suspect he limits the term to ‘fine arts’ more or less (in Nigeria at least popular forms of painting are rather common, I perceive), are rooted in Westerntraditions of fine arts and, as a result, are not connected to the cultural experience of most people. I’m not an ethnomusicologist. But he’s certainly right in so far that we’re hardly speaking about classical music, the musical equivalent to fine arts I assume, in the African context. (Though this might as well be the result of my limited insight or a bias in the research and anthropological conducted.) Still I’m not sure whether that holds at close inspection. Or rather whether it holds for all or even most forms of contemporary music.

Spontaneously I only have to think of rap which, arguments of the ultimate African roots of this Afro-American form of music aside, has been imported but subsequently creatively adapted to suit local African tastes and address local African concerns. It has been imported but still connected to the cultural experience of sufficient people to make it commercially viable. So what’s the difference then?

It is that time has passed since the establishment of the first art schools and the new import could draw upon a, to an extent, globalised (and at the same time localised) shared (youth) culture?

(Lorry Art, 21^st Century, Maiduguri, my photo)

Or is it that rap music was not introduced via an institution only accessible to a selected few (with a background in Western education) like Western forms of visual art and, thus unconfined by institutional constraints, was more selectively introduced and more quickly adapted to suit local tastes and express local concerns? I say more quickly because I do identify in popular painting an adaptation of originally Western visual practices to (contemporary, urban?) local tastes and concerns? I certainly haven’t read enough to make any statement about the role of institutionalised Western style art forms in the popularisation of popular painting. My hunch, however, would rather point towards the impact of cinema, film posters, news magazines and the like. (And of course, you're certainly right there have been local traditions of wall painting, though, to my best knowledge less naturalistic in style.) Or think of the Kalabari Ancestral Screens which, according to the interpretations I have read, might have been inspired by the artists exposure to the angular, two-dimensional visual arts owned by the Kalabari's European trade partners. However, what I’m trying to point to is the voluntary and selective adaptation of popular art forms, be it music or visual arts, on the one hand and institutionalised introduction of so-called fine art forms to an originally restricted (may I say: elite?) group.

(Kalabari Ancestral Screen, late 19^th CenturyMinneapolis Institute of Arts, Source)

Or might it have something to do with the price of in particular cassettes, later CDs as compared to that of pieces of visual arts, I mean, works by academically trained artists in particular. Just wondering. I mean for a relatively small amount cassettes and CDs offer the opportunity to entertain small crowds of family, friends and acquaintances and, btw, show off once acquaintance with the latest musical trends or suggest affiliation with a particular (youth) subculture. And, even though I’m not sure about that I assume that, especially compared to pirate copies of music cassettes and CDs, a painting is expensive. Unlike a cassette, CD or mp3 file that can be played using various portable devices a painting can reasonably be displayed in one place only (alright, you can occasionally hang it elsewhere but you wouldn’t actually carry it around, wouldn’t you). Might that not also have played a role in the greater popularity of contemporary African music as opposed to contemporary African visual arts with local African audiences?

Just a few spontaneous ideas. Am I making sense? I’m kind of lacking the ethno-musical background to make a more substantive argument but I hope to hint the direction of my thoughts here.

Any kind of feedback? Any thoughts on Goro’s or my own argumentation?