About PACE
The Pan-African Creative Exchange (PACE), in partnership with the Vrystaat Arts Festival & the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is a multi-layered and multi-platform responsive organisation, which operates primarily as a biennial showcase and arts market and a site of provocation promoting the interdisciplinary arts in Africa. PACE was developed for African and African diaspora artists and for national and international presenters, producers, and festival directors, providing the highest quality interdisciplinary cultural art product from Africa and its diaspora to buyers, artists, and the general public. Though its flagship discipline is the performing arts (theatre, dance, music), PACE also showcases work from other disciplines, such as visual arts, crafts, fashion, film, and digital arts.
Africa
Countries represented at PACE through the years. PACE additionally works across Africa and the world through our PACE+ labs and PACE@ satellite programmes. These have taken place in South Africa, Jamaica, Nigeria, the UK, Kenya, Tunisia, the Netherlands, the USA, South Korea, Zambia, and Sweden.
PACE was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 2015, at a long table conversation between arts professionals from the African continent and international visitors, and is driven by a ‘coalition of the willing’ from the African continent as well as cultural professionals outside of Africa.
PACE was developed in response to recent data indicating that the creative industries in Africa contribute less than 1% to the global creative economy. 1. As increased access to and participation in culture can be linked to an increase in human development, Africa must shift its focus to support more innovative cultural programs that can creatively transform its society. 2. Culture has also been embedded in several of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals, which further assist cultural visibility in Africa.
PACE aims to transcend cultural, social, historical, geographical and disciplinary boundaries by increasing the global reach of Africa’s contemporary arts industry and contributing to the continent’s development of future work. PACE partners with other platforms, festivals and artists to widen the reach of African and African-diasporic cultural products. By facilitating connections across diverse contexts and artistic exchanges, PACE challenges the status quo of the discourse around African/diaspora artistic work and promotes a more equitable representation of creative expression on the global stage.
1 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Report, 2010, quoted in Van Graan, Mike, ’African Creative Industries, the Sleeping Giant’, Anver Versi (edt.), African Business, No 405, London, February 2014, p 16. 2 Badamasuiy, Sakina The case for investing in Africa’s creative industries, Afrimind, 5 Apr, 2013 www.afrimind.org/article/49/the-case-for-investing-in- africas-creative-industries.html 3 Sustainable Development Goals for Culture on the 2030 Agenda, http://en.unesco.org/sdgs/clt (accessed 16 November 2016). ‘The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development marks a substantial step forward for sustainable development in many fields, and particularly for culture, as it is the first time that the international development agenda refers to culture within the framework of Sustainable Development Goals related to education, sustainable cities, food security, the environment, economic growth, sustainable consumption and production patterns, peaceful and inclusive societies.’
Goals and Objectives
- The performing arts in Africa developed and promoted through the presentation of a multi-faceted performing arts event in the Free State for international presenters and producers.
- African artists, their work, ideas and learning developed, presented and toured.
- Awareness was raised about innovative and talented artists and companies in Africa with diverse practices.
- Attendance of national and international delegates such as promoters, artistic directors, programmers, venue managers, presenters and others with the ability to book work or collaborate/partner/co-produce in development.
- Dialogue and critical debate facilitated, to raise the profile and quality of diverse artists and their practices.
Promotion of a greater understanding of the diversity of cultural expression in the international arena. - Knowledge transferred between artists and their work in the national and international arena, fostering ongoing development of innovative work and collaboration.
- Information about policy and practice is exchanged between international funders, promoters, and presenters.
- Connections forged between Africa’s growing creative and cultural industries and international partners worldwide.
- PACE is reinforced as a world-class, business-to-business event reflecting the wider global cultural significance of the creativity of diverse African practices.
Social and Economic Context
Social development requires the diversity of creativity and expression seen in the arts and cultural heritage that informs education, social cohesion, and intercultural dialogue, which informs a national identity.
Participation in PACE strengthens links for future relationships between Africa and the diaspora, as well as those interested in connections with Africa. It supports sustainable and more expansive opportunities for artistic collaborations, expanding the cultural footprint of the artists and creative professionals and adding value to the work. It provides vast opportunities for venues, festivals and cultural workers to forge new ways of working and refreshes ways art is created, presented and engaged with, whether initiated through artists or organisations.
A richer and more inclusive space of exchange and interaction, as well as a multi-layered experience for arts professionals to understand their knowledge, skills, and strengths in a different and new environment, is essential to developing resilience. It helps actors rethink notions of what it means to work in Africa or the diaspora space. It gives real-life knowledge and experience. It informs an artist’s progression and partnerships, and inspires practice. Residencies and international travel help consolidate and solidify artistic practice.
Bringing people together from different ecosystems (funding/resource ecosystem) creates a neutral base (not competing within the same ecosystem for opportunities, funding and resources). It encourages collaboration rather than competition, strengthening links and ties.
Investment in PACE generates employment in the creative industries, particularly important in the Free State, where unemployment is more than 33,9%. Participating African countries can also benefit from work sold to them and awareness raised by international presenters and producers.
Diaspora Outside of Africa
PACE recognises the African diaspora, which includes people of African descent living outside of the African continent, such as in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Europe, which is officially recognised by the African Union (AU) as its sixth African region.
