ACPST Course: The artist as peacebuilder

Date: 2013-07-08 to 2013-07-19

Venue: ISS Addis Ababa , 6th Floor Get House Building , Addis Ababa

Course dates:  8 to 19 July 2013
Course venue: ISS Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Application closing date: 17 May 2013

Course description: Efforts at ensuring peace and security in Africa are sometimes plagued by an over-emphasis on conflict resolution (instead of prevention) and an overdependence on force instead of the whole array of methods that include non-coercive peacebuilding. Such non-coercive peacebuilding has historically preoccupied artists in many traditional African cultures. Today, Wole Soyinka of Nigeria (pictured), Emerson of Sierra Leone, the Congolese sculptor, Freddy Tsimba, the Amakhosi Cultural Centre in Zimbabwe and griots in many West African societies continue to play this role.

This course will be geared towards the following ends: giving artists a better understanding of evolving peace and security issues on the continent; providing them with a better understanding of local, national and international instruments and processes for enhancing peace and security in Africa; helping them magnify the effects of their work by better relating it to these instruments and processes; equipping non-artist peace and security practitioners with a better understanding of the peacebuilding activism of artists and the ways in which these practitioners can enhance their work by tapping into such activism; and helping participants hone their peacebuilding activitism skills by sharing artists and non-artists’ methods from different areas of Africa.

Participants: artists involved in or interested in becoming involved in peacebuilding activism will be considered for participation. Non-artist peacebuilders, including grant makers, who work with or are interested in working with artists in their peacebuilding work, are also encouraged to apply.

Language of Instruction: English only. Participants should be highly proficient in English.

Participants’ Obligations: The receipt of a certificate is dependent on full attendance and active participation.

Costs and Funding: The ACPST will fund the participation of some candidates including their travel, accommodation and tuition costs. Awards are based on need and require a clear motivation in the cover letter.

How to Apply: Participants

Send a short cover letter and CV with your contact information and that of two referees to Golda Keng at [email protected] by May 17, 2013. In your email, use the subject line “Participant: AP” to ensure your application does not get lost. Admission is on a rolling basis so apply early as the course could fill up before the deadline.

How to apply: Resource Persons

The ACPST invites applications from practitioners, researchers and academics interested in acting as resource persons on specific aspects of the course. Resource persons are leading professionals working in Africa that have a postgraduate degree and/or significant experience in their field.

Under the supervision of the course director, resource persons will: prepare and share presentations on specific aspects of the course with participants; recommend study materials on the issue they cover; and make presentations on specific areas of the course to the class.

The Centre will cover the air travel and accommodation of resource persons. It will also offer a flat fee of USD 1200 for resource persons teaching for one day and USD 1600 for those teaching for two days. No other fees or per diems will be offered.

Interested candidates should send a CV, including contact details and references as well as a detailed cover letter to Golda Keng at [email protected] by May 17, 2013. The subject line of the email and cover letter should read “RP” followed by the specific thematic area(s) for which the person would like to be considered as a resource person. For example: “RP: Introduction to peacebuilding.”

The thematic areas for which the Centre seeks resource persons are:

• Understanding art as discourse/performance
• How to engage artists as peacebuilding professionals
• Creative peace plans: the mutual reinforcement of peacebuilding art and artistic peacebuilding
• African artists as peacebuilders: models and lessons 
• Lessons on activism for artists