In 2019 we were simply overwhelmed by the response to the nAnA 2019 open call. After months of pouring through each application, holding longlisting panels, juries, and interviews, we announce the 6 successful nAnA Grant and the 4 nAnA Catalyst Grant recipients.

UK + West Africa: 

  • UBUNTU

  • Tone & Trait 

UK + Southern Africa: 

  • Powerplay 

  • Is'xaxa 

UK + East Africa: 

  • Contested Belonging

  • Drum up a Circus

nAnA Catalyst Grant: 

  • HAFIKA
  • Return
  • Rewomb
  • Telling Tales

new Art new Audiences aims to be a catalyst for the creation of new art that reaches new audiences in Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. The projects showcase new art to 18 to 35-year-old audiences in the following art forms: architecture, design and fashion; film; music; dance and theatre; creative economy; cultural skills; literature; visual arts. Each selected project shows strong partnerships across Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK that aim to develop new work which will be presented to diverse new audiences. See below for more info on each project.

POST OPEN-CALL WEBINAR:

Expanding from an East Africa + UK (8 countries) open call to Sub-Saharan Africa + UK (24 countries), had its challenges. Who best to give us feedback and ask questions about our process and selection to put a) help us streamline nAnA for the next year and b) to help you understand what we're looking for in projects. We'd like to hear from you from the good to the possibly bad.

Click to RSVP: 20 November 2019, 3pm EAT / 2pm CAT / 12pm GMT / Click to RSVP - Can't make the webinar? We'll be posting the recording link here three days after the webinar.

nAnA 2020/21

Did you apply and not get selected in this round, or just missed this year's call completely?  We'll be holding a nAnA Open Call again in 2020/21 and invite you to strengthen UK + Sub-Saharan Africa partner links for your proposal next year.

East Africa + UK Projects:

Drum up a Circus (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Circus Zambia, Ingoma Nshya, NoFit State Circus from Wales

The collaborative creation of a new cross art form production, that challenges the gendered roles prescribed by society. Fusing Zambian and European circus styles together with a female led development of traditional Rwandan drumming, the new production will celebrate the unique strengths of the partners. Together they will create a piece of live arts that can not only cross audience boundaries but also change their assumptions of the performers and the arts forms.

The Feminine and the Foreign (with Southern Africa)

Partners: LIFT Festival, Infecting the City, The Nest Collective

The Feminine and the Foreign is a series of short films profiling activists involved in queer, feminist and anti-colonial movements in Cape Town, Nairobi and London. This multi-city exploration will be made by Nairobi’s The Nest Collective and commissioned by Infecting the City and LIFT festivals. Working with British, Kenyan and South African young activists aged 18-35 as film subjects, The Nest will develop a new style of festival-ready filmmaking. Films will be created in London, Nairobi and Cape Town and reach live and digital audiences through festival screenings and online dissemination. Wrap-around events such as talks and workshops will further embed and deepen the project and The Nest's reach in both cities.

Southern Africa + UK Projects:

Powerplay (with West Africa)

Partners: National Gallery Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, arebyte Gallery London

p o w e r p l a y is a group exhibition featuring artists working with digital media, video and technology co-commissioned by London-based arebyte Gallery and the National Gallery Zimbabwe (NGZ) in Bulawayo. Championing digital artists based in Nigeria (Mr Color, Tito Aderemi Ibitola), South Africa (Vincent Bezuidenhout, Scumboy, King Debs), Zimbabwe (Mbakisi Sibanda, Kumbirai Makumbe), Nairobi (Isaac Kariuki) and the UK (Dani Ploeger, Christopher MacInnes), the exhibition discusses the use of technology in creating a sense of identity and place. Taking place both online and offline, the multi-sited exhibition format interrogates the juxtaposition between the virtual and the real.

Is'xaxa (with West Africa)

Partners: Mushroom Hour, Total Refreshment Centre, Church of Sound

Is’Xaxa is a multi-disciplinary project occurring in London. The core discipline at the heart of the project is music and the project will a see a wide range of musicians and three independent record labels from the burgeoning “New Jazz” scenes in South Africa and London working together to record and co-release two collaborative albums. Writers, fine artists, photographers, filmmakers and designers from London, Dakar and Johannesburg will create experimental films and zine publications documenting this historic process. The project will end with a performance by South African musicians at the Church of Sound in London.

West Africa + UK Projects:

Ubuntu (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Conor Cronin, Kate Cox, Nataal (UK), Mami Wata

Unbuntu is a 10-minute Conceptual Documentary exploring the ways in which surfing empowers women in Africa through a new lineage of female surfers in Dakar, Senegal, and the spreading wave of collecting and repurposing ocean plastics into African craft. By linking filmmakers in the UK with artists and designers in South and West Africa through sustainable design we repurpose ocean plastics to highlight the important role the ocean plays in empowering women to learn to surf against the tide of the patriarchy and to look after the ocean for future generations of women to be able to surf also.

Tone & Trait (with Southern Africa)

Partners: Terra Alta (Ghana), Bubblegum Club (SA) / Featuring: Efua Sutherland, Halima Gadji, Marvin Dieterich / Directed by: Oualid Khelifi

Tone & Trait will explore misconceptions and myths around fitting or not within a spectrum of skin colour and facial features in Senegal, Ghana and South Africa. Through three emblematic performers, It aims to present contemporary portraits of how tone and trait still shapes artistic postures of African youngsters. This body of artwork will have two outputs: three docufiction art films of 3 minutes each + a 30 minutes interactive multimedia performance. In both formats, each performer will take on societal perceptions towards her/his own persona: physical and cyber as two-pillar dimensions to one’s image in today’s hybrid reality.

Catalyst Grants

HAFIKA (West Africa + East Africa + UK)

Partners: Open Arts, Hekaya Initiative, Afrikult

Return (West Africa + East Africa + UK)

Partners: Akeelah Bertram, Jonathan Dotse, Irma Wange

Rewomb (East Africa + West Africa + UK)

Partners: Natacha Muziramakenga Natacha,  Tabaro Poupoute, Orlane ‘Aela’ Mwanayera, Grace Holyoake-Ward (Grackyl), Maria Velasquez.... and more

Telling Tales (Southern Africa + West Africa + UK)

Partners: Djamila de Sousa, Wacy Zacarias, Thabisa Mjo, Nkuli Mlangeni-Berg, Yemi Awosile

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