Call for applications – arts journalists critical writing workshop

Contemporary And (C&) will facilitate a three-day Critical Writing Workshop for young art critics based in Harare from 13th to 15th September 2017. Deadline for submission: Wednesday, 15 August 2017. Interested candidates should submit a CV and a one-page letter of motivation and/or a writing sample (1000 words max.) to [email protected].

The workshop is made possible by support from the Ford Foundation.

A maximum number of 20 applicants will be accepted. There is a limited number of spots available to young writers based in neighbouring countries such as Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa.

The invitation is open to young art writers in the very early stages of their career.

With this workshop C& aims to:

• Facilitate the circulation of knowledge and experience among participants
• Discuss arts reporting and critical writing practice particularly to attract a younger audience
• Provide the tools of how to write reviews, comments and essays within a given timeframe
• Mediate how to pitch topics to different media platforms
• Give insights into the processes of editing
• Broaden the network of East African journalists
• Link participants to a network of arts journalists contributing to C& with the possibility of publishing on C&
• Supporting young arts writers in finding various publishing outlets beyond C&
• A selected group of workshop participants will be invited to benefit from a yearlong online C&
• Mentoring Program, during which senior arts writers will review their writing. More information on the
• C& Mentoring Program will be given during the workshop.

 

Tutors

 

M. Neelika Jayawardane
(tbc) is a Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York-Oswego, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA), University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). She was a founding member of the online magazine, Africa is a Country, where she was Senior Editor and contributor from 2010-2016. Her scholarly publications focus on the nexus between South African literature, photography, and the transnational/transhistorical implications of colonialism and apartheid on the body.

Obidike Okafor
is a content producer, award-winning art journalist and budding filmmaker. He was awarded arts journalist of the year in 2009 by the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA) Lagos Chapter, and was a nominee for arts journalist of the year 2011 in the Nigerian Art Expo awards. In 2014, he was selected as a contributor to the newsletter for the Dakar Art Biennale. He also runs visual storytelling training workshops for journalists. He lives in Lagos.

Percy Zvomuya
is a writer, journalist and football fan. He is a co-founder of The Con Magazine, a Johannesburg based writing collective. He has written for Africa is a Country, Mail & Guardian, Jacobin, Sunday Times (South Africa) and others. In 2014, he was on the judging panel of the Caine Prize for African Writing. He has received the Miles Morland Fellowship and the Shlettwein Foundation Grant to undertake research at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien.

Eligibility

The participants should:

• Have first journalistic/writing experiences in the cultural field. Senior writers with long-term
• experiences will not be accepted.
• Be interested in a focus on visual arts.
• Be fluent in spoken and written English.

 

About C&

Contemporary And (C&) is an online art magazine and a dynamic space for the reflection on and linking together of ideas, discourse and information on contemporary art practice from diverse African perspectives. C& is a rapidly growing cultural platform that lies at the intersection of contemporary art, art critic and digital media.