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Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel

Artist Call-Out

Art

KumbuKumbu

Wales, with her own history of colonialization, and the continuous experiences of keeping memory, language and place names alive, can be a place of solidarity and experimentation in the reworking of history. We propose to create a website which combines mapping, storytelling and augmented reality to create ‘Kumbukumbu’; a layering of our mutual Welsh-African memories across the land. 

Funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, we are interested in Welsh-African heritage and culture. We define this as any link between Wales and Africa, including the history or people of African descent in the Caribbean and the history of people from Wales in Africa. We are interested in a broad historical scope, ranging from early Roman times to contemporary culture. The heritage we collate must be in some way connected to landmarks such as buildings, sites, statues, objects, roads, ports, etc. 

We want to include histories that are challenging, joyful, painful, inspiring and more, with users of the app being able to apply filters and tailor their experiences. Examples include:

  • Africans in the Roman legions, Roman sites

  • ‘Black Jack’
  • The Africa Institute of Colwyn Bay and the burial sites of the ‘Congo Boys’
  • Key monuments as highlighted in the recent review of Welsh statues and places linked to slavery

Paid Opportunity:

Kumbukumbu – Our Memories

‘Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel’ (SSAP) are inviting Black and Brown creatives and allies to create new work responding to Black History in Wales. 

Kumbukumbu, meaning ‘Memories’ in Kiswahili, will create a place where Black Histories and Stories can be gathered, researched, shared and preserved for future generations.

We are looking for Welsh or Wales based artists who are interested in Black History and want to work with us on making Black Welsh History seen, heard, and celebrated in a contemporary and imaginative way. 

What’s on offer?

  1. Fee of £1500 per chosen artist.

  2. Be part of a diverse cohort team of artists that will tell engaging, new, creative, and intersectional stories in new ways.
  3. Opportunity for creatives to develop themselves as effective African-Welsh heritage communicators.
  4. Space for creatives to take positive, practical action on decolonializing Welsh-African history.
  5. Trips across Wales, designing and delivering community storytelling workshops, as well as working with leading Welsh heritage institutions.
  6. Free training on creative learning tools, incl. delivering learning materials to support the teaching of Welsh Black History in line with the Welsh Curriculum.
  7. The opportunity to create and exhibit new and meaningful artworks celebrating our shared histories. 

Entry Requirements:

  • The applicants must be based in Wales.

  • If accepted, your work in the next few months must respond to the Kumbukumbu project and its research; hence you should have an interest in uncovering and retelling Black History and its connection to Wales. You will work closely with the project Researcher in finding the right story that you will want to explore.
  • We accept artists working in any of the visual arts mediums, as well as artists working with performance, dance, and music.

How to apply:

  • A short biography, about you and your background (maximum 200 words).

  • Proposal text giving an example of Welsh Black History that inspires you and that you would like to further explore (maximum 500 words). This can be an historical event or important figure, a location, or a non-tangible heritage element such as ritual and tradition, or even an experience you have had.
  • Supporting images or recordings of your work, up to 8 images or maximum 5 minutes of video showing your artistic practice.
  • Alongside writing proposals, we accept video or audio recording submissions of up to 8 minutes
  • Send the applications to robert.oros@ssap.org.uk and innocent.chimba@ssap.org.uk including ‘Artist Call Out Application’ in the Subject line.
  • Please include your contact information: name, pronouns, age, your social media/website and where are you based, as well as any accessibility needs. If you’re applying as a group/collective, please include the above information about every participating member. 

This project is funded by the National lottery Heritage Fund.

Deadline: February 25th 2024

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