The Association pour le Développement Local et la Protection de l'Environnement (Association for Local Development and Environmental Protection, ADELPE) has set itself the goal of contributing to the promotion of Mauritanian cultural and natural heritage through cultural and educational activities organised in Goural and the surrounding area.
It was not by chance that the town of Goural was chosen as the hub for the NGO’s work: there is already a museum here, opened in 2016, which requires some support in order to improve its services.
In addition to developing the museum through the acquisition of works and objects, the project plans include an annual cultural festival, the organisation of museum tours and development of the website dedicated to its activities, which will also offer virtual tours. A wider audience will be able to follow all these actions on social media.
Founded in 2019 by Aicha Chighaly, the Mauritanian company ARDINE works on promoting and preserving intangible oral and traditional heritage. Working hand-in-hand with the authorities, it draws up recommendations to enable identity-based, organisational and societal values to be better taken into account.
As a seasoned artist and avid traveller, Chighaly quickly became aware of the importance of museums in preserving heritage and the history of identities. The result was the ARDINE museum and festival, both the fruit of the ART’DUNES project.
These two spaces for expression, one focused on heritage preservation and the other on showcasing traditional artistic creation, are united by a desire to ensure that Mauritanian cultural memory lives on.
The association has already been very successful, with some one hundred women and 300 young people trained in different crafts and the making of instruments, including the ardine, the t’beul and other percussion instruments.
Based on the observation that age-old ways of sharing knowledge and values are gradually being forgotten in favour of rapid urbanisation and the rise of social media, the association “Promotion des Arts au Mali” (Promoting the Arts in Mali, PAM), also known as “Culture en Partage” (“Shared culture”), is dedicated to supporting cultural creation and sharing it with as many people as possible, especially the younger generations.
The work of Culture en Partage consists of bringing together figures from the cultural sector (theatre, dance, music, visual arts, publishing, etc.) and giving them international exposure. Providing employment for culture professionals, making African creation more accessible to as many people as possible and helping to showcase African cultures are just some of the association’s goals.
Its projects include La Maison des Solutions (The House of Solutions), set up in a cultural centre in Bamako, which is best described as a hub for cultural creation and technological innovation.
The two key actions resulting from this project are the Musée initiatique (“Museum of initiation”), which is aimed at cultural institutions and is part of the movement to present African artworks by going beyond the scope provided by traditional exhibition design (through the use of virtual reality, for example) and radio drama, an incubator for audio creations in African languages broadcast on radio and web-radio stations.
Fashion and art have always been closely linked, and this connection formed the starting point for the company NYH Concepts, which aims to showcase them in northern Nigeria and even further afield. The ultimate goal: to make the state of Kaduna Africa’s one-stop destination for art and fashion.
The Kaduna Fashion and Art Exhibition (KAFART), which is already in its fourth year, meets several objectives: to present crafts as a traditional art form that transcends time and celebrate it through an exhibition that will showcase woven textiles, embroidery, sculpture, tie-dye and other techniques.
To top it all off, workshops and masterclasses will be organised alongside the exhibition in order to share artisanal techniques with up-and-coming young creatives.
Théâtre MAYTON PROMO is an association founded in 2000, dedicated to the production, promotion and dissemination of cultural and literary assets. Its aim is to generate cultural entrepreneurship among young people and support professional cultural stakeholders with their training.
The project “Digital'Art, Pratiqu'Art au Bénin” aims to boost artists’ artistic and managerial knowledge and skills in order to offer quality services and reach populations without regular access to such services.
To do this, a theatre and ballet troupe will be established and will perform in 10 villages of the municipality of Zè. 25 artists will also receive social media training in order to promote their productions.
The Association Sèna Street Art, also known as ASSART, aims to make art accessible to all by promoting street culture. The association brings together young, committed artists in various artistic fields such as graffiti, visual arts, music, dance, photography, video and digital arts.
The Ecolo Street Art Bénin project is part of the EFFET GRAFF international street art festival and aims to raise awareness and educate children about the Sustainable Development Goals through street art.
Taster and teaching workshops will be organised for children from isolated areas in order to raise their awareness of the key themes of sustainable development and climate change.
The Association AFRICA UNITE is a Burkinabe organisation that works in the fields of academic guidance, professional and cultural training for young people and the organisation of cultural and early learning activities for children.
The project of the Association Africa Unite aims to boost the circus arts sector in the Hauts-Bassins region. It includes four steps: a training session for 10 teachers, art-based action across 3 isolated sites, the production of educational documents and the presentation of group performances at the International Festival of Circus Arts.
The Cinéma Numérique Ambulant (CNA) is a non-profit cultural association that has been screening African films for disadvantaged populations in Burkina Faso since 2007. The screenings take place in villages without any electricity or cultural infrastructure, as well as in schools and orphanages. The aims of the CNA are to promote culture as a vector of sustainable development and to help construct a strong identity through cinema.
The project works to give children and teenagers an introduction to image education by teaching them stop-motion and video animation filming techniques.
The Association Nord Ouest Cultures was founded in January 2019 and officially recognised in April 2020. Its aim is to work towards developing healthy relationships between populations through strategies that include sharing reliable information on cultures, training leaders and representatives on living together and intercultural dialogue, conducting studies and organising symposia.
The project “WACOM: West African Culture On the Move" consists of setting up and running a virtual space for artistic and cultural information for West Africa, with the creation of three cultural websites in each country (Burkina Faso, Togo, Ghana).
The ACMUR Burkina collective was founded in 2002 with the aim of structuring, developing and perpetuating street art in West Africa. Made up of artists working in different disciplines, the association strives for a higher level of professionalisation and artistic standards.
The project's goals are to re-create two performances on the themes of democracy and integrity, set up a circus tent as a venue for shows and training, produce these shows and take them on a national, regional and international tour with a newly-founded arts booking agency so that they can be shown throughout Burkina Faso and in Europe.