The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) is pleased to announce the launch of a new grants program titled the North Africa Cultural Program, supported by the Swiss Cooperation Office.
The North Africa Cultural Program (NACP) is a three-year program (2019-2022) that is dedicated to five countries of North Africa- namely Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya- and that comprises two support schemes: a National Fund and a Regional Fund. Together, the two funds aim to strengthen independent arts and culture entities (institutions, collectives, networks, spaces…), encourage regional collaborations, and focus on supporting distribution, circulation and dissemination of artistic works in all fields.
Through an open call scheme, this program provides up to three-year institutional and programmatic support to active arts and culture entities based in each of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, as well as for transboundary projects that promote joint artistic collaborations, distribution, and the professionalization of arts and culture practices among those five countries and with the rest of the Arab and African regions.
Nationally, support is in the form of core and program funding to strengthen the structures of independent arts and culture entities and for their increased engagement and outreach, as well as the training and skill-building of young artists and emerging professionals.
Regionally, the program supports artistic projects that are jointly created among entities; the distribution, dissemination and circulation of artistic works and productions to broad audiences; the documentation, archiving and sharing of data, knowledge, and contemporary practices in arts and culture; as well as exchanges on the development of frameworks for arts and culture education and cultural policies.
The program’s National Fund provides a total grant between $75.000 and $200.000 per grant, to begin in November 2019 and end by March 2022. The Regional Fund provides a total grant between $150,000 and $300,000 per grant, to begin in December 2019 / January 2020 and end by March 2022.
This program is open to the diversity of cultural expression with no conditions attached in terms of themes or artistic practices. Even though it is the first time AFAC specifies a sub-region for an open call grants program which are usually open and accessible to all applicants across the Arab region, AFAC sees this as an opportunity to build a solid model for the strengthening of arts and culture entities as well as for distribution support. Our vision is to replicate such a model in the wider Arab region and to expand connections where they organically exist.
The program’s National Fund call for applications opens on May 15 and closes on August 1, 2019 with the announcement of results scheduled for October 2019. The Regional Fund call for applications will occur via a rolling call starting May 15 and ending November 1, 2019, with two separate deadlines and announcements, namely August 1 for the first deadline and October 10, 2019 for the first announcement, then November 1, 2019 for the second deadline and January 10, 2020 for the second announcement.
The full guidelines of the North Africa Cultural Program - National Fund, including the process and eligibility criteria, click here
The full guidelines of the North Africa Cultural Program - Regional Fund, including the process and eligibility criteria, click here
Applications can be submitted in either Arabic, English or French, exclusively online via the AFAC website. Applications submitted via regular mail or e-mail will not be accepted.
For further questions or inquiries, contact the Grants management team.