S+T+ARTS4AFRICA is thrilled to announce a series of three dynamic Networking Events designed to foster collaboration and innovation among stakeholders from the EU and AU. These events, each focusing on a distinct and pertinent theme, aim to bring together experts and participants to explore new frontiers in digital and cultural integration.
Each event will feature expert presentations, including perspectives from both technical and artistic fields, providing a comprehensive view of the topic at hand. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive Q&A sessions and join breakout discussions, allowing for deeper exploration and collaboration with facilitators and fellow attendees. These events represent a unique opportunity to bridge cultures and disciplines, fostering a rich exchange of ideas and potential partnerships.
Session 1
Date: August 8, 18h CET, Zoom
Speakers: Ana Temudo and Femi Johnson
Digitization as ‘A Step’ Towards Healing the Colonial Past
In major Western museums, it has become evident that provenance studies are crucial for accurately interpreting colonial collections before any restitution efforts. The documentation for these collections is often scattered across multiple institutions, making it difficult to piece together the full history of these objects. While ethnographic museums are currently prioritizing provenance studies, they are also collaborating with diaspora communities to reinterpret the collections. Through this collaboration, they are creating exhibitions that challenge contemporary perspectives on the position of African societies in the modern world. This presentation will explore the role of digitizing collections in this complex process.
About the speaker:
Ana Temudo has a degree in Fine Arts and a postgraduate degree in Art Studies from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto. Master in Museology from the Faculty of Arts, University of Porto. PhD student in Heritage Studies. Temudo collaborates on projects that promote interdisciplinarity between museum and heritage studies, art and social sciences. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2463-3975
Role of the MOWAA Digital Lab in safeguarding African heritage in the digital age
Over the past two years, our team has employed digital imaging techniques to digitize, reconstruct, and preserve culturally significant collections, such as the Benin Bronze Plaques. This work not only ensures the longevity of African heritage but also facilitates broader access and engagement with these cultural treasures. By merging traditional knowledge with digital innovation, we are creating a sustainable model for preserving and sharing Africa’s rich cultural legacy with the world.
About the speaker:
Femi Johnson is a Digital Heritage Specialist at the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), where he leverages science and technology to preserve and understand African heritage. Through groundbreaking work at the MOWAA Digital Lab, Femi has joined efforts to digitally reconstruct the Benin Bronze Plaques and recreate the 16th Century Audience Hall in which they were housed, from a fragmented corpus, dispersed round the world.
Femi’s expertise has been recognized through his role as a guest professor at the University of Arts Hamburg, where he explored the concept of impermanence through the lens of art and science. Additionally, he spoke at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023, in a discussion on “Re-build Together: Digital, Human, and Arts-driven Innovation in Africa,” focusing on the role of innovation in re-shaping narratives and fostering collaboration between Europe and Africa.
His work has also earned him collaborations with various institutions such as the Swiss Benin Initiative, EUNIC, Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, the GAS Foundation, The Goethe Institute, German Archeological Institute, Filmhaus Basel, Institute of Benin Studies and the National Commision for Museums and Monuments Nigeria.
Session 2
Date: August 22, 18h CET, Zoom
Speakers: Anna Meleiya and Andrea Conte
Verses for the Planet Earth: Poetry as a Voice for Climate Justice
Climate change is impacting everyone on planet Earth at varying rates and times. Although numerous mechanisms and tools have been implemented to tackle this urgent crisis, we have excelled in uniting to destroy Mother Earth. Sadly, we have struggled to build the power needed to mend the damage. Art is a powerful tool for uniting people to create and implement desired climate change solutions. We need passionate hearts dedicated to building a brighter future, and I know we both have those hearts.
About the speaker:
Anna Meleiya Mbise is a Tanzanian and Pan-African poet, Fulbright Scholar and a social transformer. She holds a BA in Political Science and Language and an MA in Development Management from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Additionally, she has a Social Work certificate from Bennett College and a Community Health Certificate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the USA. She has attended labour courses offered by ILO, Global Labour University and ITUC Africa. Anna is currently pursuing her PhD at Tangaza University in Nairobi, Kenya, with a specialization in Climate Governance and the Changing World of Work.
Anna’s mission is to empower African children through literature, fostering storytelling as a means of cultural understanding and growth. Her free mobile library emphasizes the importance of reading and writing for everyone, promoting a network of young global citizens. She believes that every individual has a story to share, one that is worth saving for humanity. Anna believes that adhering to the principles of UTU/UBUNTU is the best solution to address the crises facing humanity, including the climate change crisis.
Art and Political Ecology
Andrea Conte (Andreco) will describe the Climate Art Project. Andrea Conte’s talk on “Narrating Climate Change through Art” explores the intersection of environmental science and visual arts as a powerful medium to communicate the urgency of climate change. Drawing from his extensive background as both an environmental engineer and a visual artist, he discusses how art can make scientific concepts more accessible and emotionally impactful, encouraging public engagement with Climate Justice. His work, characterized by public installations, performances, and multimedia projects, demonstrates the role of art in fostering a deeper understanding of the human-nature relationship and advocating for sustainable practices.
About the speaker:
Andrea Conte, director of Andreco studio, works between art, science and social and environmental themes. Andrea Conte is a visual artist and also an environmental engineer PhD specialise in sustainable resources management in different climate conditions, he did a Post. Doc researches non green technologies and Nature Based Solutions for urban sustainability collaborating with the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Bologna and the Columbia University of New York City. His artistic research is focused on the relation between humans and nature and between the built environment and the natural landscape. Since 2000 Andrea Conte is researching between science, environmental sustainability, activism, urbanism, anthropology, ecology, philosophy, and symbolism, on the base of this transdisciplinary researches he creates his conceptual and visual language. Climate Art Project is one of his main projects about climate actions.
Andrea Conte uses many techniques to represent his art, from public installations to videos, performance or wall paintings and drawings. Andrea Conte worked for several international festivals, museums and galleries. Andrea Conte won the special price of the “Talent Prize 2017” at Macro Museom of Contemporary art of Rome, 2016, the international price for rural regeneration Jazzi, Selected Artist for the Gran Tour d’Italie of the Ministry of Culture MIBAC 2019, Selected for the Italian Oscar prize for the environmental communication 2019 related to Climate Change.
Session 3
Date: August 29, 18h CET, Zoom
Speakers: Wanjiru Kamuyu and Princely Hope Glorious
Cultivating Change: Transcultural Art and the Global Village
Transcultural collaborations are spaces that nourish and challenge worldviews, practices, approaches, methodologies and aesthetics. Through my extensive lived experience on three continents, my Mūguikūyū African American mocha brown skin Pan African female lens is multilayered and complex. I regularly witness and engage in art making within a transcultural collaborative framework. These spaces plant seeds of expansion, shedding, empowerment and resilience. The cultivation of transcultural artistic exchange births an expanded understanding, acceptance, tolerance and celebration of the other, the othered and each other, the local, the (im)migrant and the visitor. Such collaborations create micro global villages that serve as catalysts and bridges for positive social, economic and political change that can consequentially ignite macro paradigm shifts within a community and society at large.
About the speaker:
Wanjiru Kamuyu, native Kenyan based in Paris, France, is associate artist with the National Choreographic Center Nantes (France), a Live Feed artist with New York Live Arts (USA) and seasons 2022 to 2024 was associate artist with Theater L’Onde (Vélizy, France).
Kamuyu founded dance company, WKcollective, which is associate company with creative production agency camin aktion (Montpellier, France). Her choreographic works “Portaits in red”, “An Immigrant’s Story”, “Fragmented Shadows” and dance short “La visite” tour in the US, Africa, Asia and Europe. Commissions include collaborations with directors Jérôme Savary (France); Jean François Auguste (France); Hassan Kassi Kouyate (France); US esteemed dance departments (Mills College, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Stephens College); artistic consulting/outside eye for choreographer Bintou Dembele; choreographer assistant to Nathan Trice; storyteller Nathalie La Boucher; and community engagement projects with New WORLD Theater (USA), choreographer Eun-mi Ahn (Festival Paris Quartier d’Été), Euroculture and the National Center for Dance project Assemblé (France).
Her career began with its genesis in New York City. As a performer she has worked with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bill T. Jones, Molissa Fenley, Anita Gonzales, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nathan Trice, Dean Moss, Tania Isaac… and in Europe with choreographers Robyn Orlin, Emmanuel Eggermont, Anne Collod, River Lin, Nathalie Pubellier, Irène Tassembedo, Bartabas, Stefanie Batten Bland, director/writer Françoise Dô, writers Karthika Naïr, Deepak Unnikrishnan, visual artist Jean-Paul Goude and TV director Christian Faure. Alongside Kamuyu has performed in industrials, television and Broadway musicals, The Lion King (Paris) and FELA ! (UK and Equity European and US tours).
While touring she offers master classes and workshops for dance companies, universities, community and dance centers. Kamuyu holds a MFA (performance & choreography) from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). She has served as Visiting Guest Professor at Mills College (USA) and is currently core faculty for University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris semester and summer programs.
Transcultural Collaboration: Aligning Narratives for Global Innovation
Effective transcultural collaboration starts with aligned metanarratives — i.e. the big and small stories we tell ourselves and others. By understanding our own axiomatic stories and those of others we want to work with, we can collaborate more effectively. We’ll explore three key areas: 3 lenses, 3 tools, and 3 skills for transcultural collaboration. First, we’ll focus on three approaches: balancing teaching and learning, using methods that encourage inclusive creativity, and aligning goals for true collaboration. Then, we’ll dive into three essential skills: active listening, effective communication, and cultural literacy. Through practical methods like narrative alignment workshops, collaborative projects, and cultural immersion and exchange programs, I’ll demonstrate how we can overcome cultural barriers and build mutual understanding and innovation. Join me to see how these principles can transform our collaborations and our world, one story at a time.
About the speaker:
Princely Hope-Glorious is the founding partner of OnaStories Group in Tanzania, a storytelling and emerging technology outfit encompassing OnaStories, Ona Kesho AI & XR, and the Ona Creator Network. Currently, he also serves as the Communications Director of the US/Tanzania ICT Partnership and convenes Fikiri, a community dedicated to generating ideas and action.
Over the past 13+ years, Princely has been instrumental in building an ecosystem for creative technologists, storytellers, and artists in emerging media such as AI and XR (AR and VR) in Tanzania. He has provided training and produced work for world-class organizations including the United Nations Tanzania communications group, USAID, Songas, CRDB Bank, Vodacom, DW Akademie, the National Museum of Tanzania, WFP, UNCDF, FCS, LSF and more.
