Minutes of the Meeting
Present: Avi Sooful (Chair), Paul-Henri Souvenir Assako Assako, Ebenezer Acquah, Juste Constant Onana Amougui, Patrique deGraft-Yankson, Osuanyi Essel, Mary Claire Akinyi Kidenda, Constanze Kirchner, Lize Kriel, Suki Mwendwa, Jane Otieno, Bernadette Van Haute, Ernst Wagner
Apologies: Ruth Belinga, Stefan Eisenhofer, Runette Kruger, Nicola Pauli, Zhang Ming
Welcome: Avi welcomes all participants, proposing the agenda.
Reports about running local and international activities by panel members
- Suki reported on her participation at the WAAE conference in February. The topic for her workshop is “Who are we” and the medium is “storytelling” – as this allows her to bring together all art forms and all media. She will use her presence to introduce EVC to the participants and stakeholders from UNESCO.
- Ernst informed the panel about the new partner in Greece, the National Museum for Contemporary Art in Athens, EMST, and their project “face forward”: EVC Website -> Galleries.
- A Ghanaian and a German team decided to work on a joint textbook for art education in secondary schools – under the supervision of Avi. Osuanyi is coordinating the Ghanaian part, and Ernst the German part. Both teams are working on the topic “sustainability” as the first chapter. A joint workshop will be held in early March in Ghana. EVC members who are interested in this approach are invited to get in touch with Osuanyi or Ernst.
Joint virtual exhibition about the theme “gender matters”
A second online art exhibition will be hosted. Each country will decide on their curator who will liaise with participating universities to submit 10 – 15 artworks created by their students, related to the topic. Listed curators are: Kenya: Mary Claire; Cameroon: Paul; South Africa: Avi; Ghana: Ebenezer; Germany: Anja Schönau (Augsburg).
Next EVC Publication
A new EVC publication will be published in 2023. Concept:
- Reflecting on projects, concepts, and research in the context of documenta fifteen – EVC perspectives
- A section about EVC’s history (writing EVC’s memory)
EVC-Conference in Pretoria, Future Africa Campus, UP (Sept 19 – 22/23)
4 days - 4 tracks:
- Education at School
- Tertiary education
- Visual Art Practice
- Heritage, Conservation and Restitution
General
The “SDG Graduate School: Performing Sustainability - Cultures and Development in West-Africa" (https://www.uni-hildesheim.de/sustainability/) at the University of Hildesheim is interested in cooperation with EVC. To benefit both organizations (EVC and Hildesheim) the coordinator will be invited to the panel meetings as an observer.
Next meeting: Wednesday, March 15 (Time in Winneba: 9am; Cameroon/Germany: 10am, Pretoria: 11am; Nairobi: 12; Jinan: 5pm)