Breathing Space: Grants for Arts Practitioners 2020

Pro Helvetia Johannesburg is calling Arts Practitioners for grants – Breathing Space. Artists, organisations and networks from across the sub-Saharan African region are invited to submit project proposals. 

The last six months have seen many of our assumptions about society, culture, and economy upturned or broken. We see in equal measure both the emergence of possibilities for rapid and transformative change and the deepening of existing fractures and injustices. It is clear that we are inside a period of disruption that neither began nor will end with the COVID-19 pandemic and in which the larger social-economic-ecological crises of our time become vivid and present. 

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For Pro Helvetia Johannesburg, they confront with renewed sharpness the question of the relevance of our central task of international exchange and collaboration in the arts during a time in which many artists on the continent are seeing their livelihoods unravelling, and in which many organizations and businesses are facing collapse. While physical mobility has been massively curtailed during this period, we have found ourselves mining more deeply the creative possibilities that inhere in the digital, not only for bridging physical distance but also as a medium for the creation and reception of artistic work. 

Against this backdrop, the present call looks to enable a modest ‘breathing space’ for arts practitioners, organizations, and networks across the subcontinent to rethink ways of working and reimagine the shape and position of cultural and creative work. The call is intended to open up opportunities to experiment with new possibilities and formats for artistic production, exchange, collaboration, presentation, and reception, responsive to the complex demands of the present time at both a very local and global level.  

Moving beyond normal funding instruments, the present call both supports entirely new ideas and initiatives, as well as the amplification or extension of what arts practitioners are already doing in response to these changing circumstances. They are also open to proposals that involve the exploration of new formats and approaches as well as projects that use this moment of global rupture to engage more deeply with or interrogate older methods and practices and archives – or indeed to do both. Analog and digital approaches are equally welcome. It is not expected that proposals should address COVID–19 at the level of theme or content. 

While the connection to the Swiss art scene is welcome, it is not a requirement of this call: their interest is more in enabling local possibilities on the subcontinent that could in the future provide a basis for exchange and connection with the Swiss art scene and cultural field more generally. 

Selection Criteria: 

• Clarity of purpose, intended outcome/s, and methods? (Is it clear what you won’t do and why?) 
• Originality in concept and methods, artistic quality, and relevance (Will the project contribute something new and significant to the field in concept and approach? Will the project have a life beyond the immediate stage covered by the grant?) 
• Track record and professionalism of the applicant and their network (Will the project be professionally executed?)