AFRO-NETS> Arts Coalition Announcement

[Janet Feldman <kaippg@earthlink.net>]

Arts Coalition Announcement
---------------------------

Dear Friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to tell people about the "Arts 
Project" and hope that anyone who is interested will contact me and 
join us! I began organizing an arts coalition in October of 2002, af-
ter seeing that so many organisations and individuals I network with 
are using the arts to address HIV/AIDS (and also poverty, child 
abuse, development, and a host of other problems and issues). The 
coalition now has members from Kenya, S. Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, 
Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, 
Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the USA, 
and I am gathering new names almost daily to contact, so hope that 
the list will grow even larger soon. 

This effort is mostly at the networking stage now, and I have put out 
several updates and sent a form for people to fill in about them-
selves, their work and organization, and their interests and ideas. 
Many people have expressed an interest in wanting to know what others 
are doing in this regard, so the newsletter idea is what I have been 
pursuing to date, and this networking and information-gathering and 
dissemination will comprise a large part of what I envision the coa-
lition doing.

At some point we may want to writing grants and planning festivals, 
activities, and other events as well. One member and I have spoken 
about creating a multi-country and multi-cultural festival, others 
have spoken about organizing national networks (though some of these 
exist already, at least in terms of national HIV/AIDS umbrella or-
ganizations--like KANCO in Kenya--who have databases of members util-
izing the arts in their work), one member has spoken about writing a 
"how-to" manual for groups who want to use the arts in this manner. 

I am thinking about a website and perhaps a listserv for this year, 
and establishing a non-profit organization in case that might be 
helpful to us, though most of us are already connected with and work-
ing for already-established organizations, who can certainly form 
partnerships and engage in joint activities at any time. I have sev-
eral names I am considering for this endeavor, and will choose one 
soon, and at some point there may be a steering committee developed 
in some formal sense, which will help to oversee all of these activi-
ties as we expand. 

I do not want to step on any toes or reinvent the wheel, however -- 
as there are incredible organizations out there already who repre-
sent, work with, or support artists and art forms addressing the 
HIV/AIDS pandemic, among them being AAAW, AfricaAlive!, Africamix, 
CHAPS -- so this coalition will hope to work with and for (providing 
networking, info in newsletters for a start, if needed and requested, 
and the coalition network itself) these already-established organiza-
tions and learn from them, adding to rather than competing with what 
is working well already, so that all of us individually and collec-
tively can enhance efforts to prevent, ameliorate, and educate about 
HIV/AIDS.

I will close on that hopeful note by inviting anyone and everyone who 
might be interested to contact me, and I thank you immensely for your 
time, energy, and enthusiasm. 

With all best wishes and gratitude, 
Janet Feldman
Director, KAIPPG/International
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net

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