IICD supported project: Soleil Artnet

Countries: Mali [ML]
Sectors: livelihoods

Summary

Soleil d’Afrique is an association of visual artists in Mali, which wants to promote the visibility and economical viability of artists through national and international exchanges. The project Soleil Artnet aims at empowering artists via the provision of a computer graphics work and training centre in Bamako – a place where artists can (learn to) use computer technology to widen and/or perfection their scope of work, get in touch and exchange with other artists abroad through the Internet, and promote their work through the Internet.

Introduction

Soleil d’Afrique rightly reasoned that its efforts to promote the plastic arts and young Malian artists would be ineffective unless new technology were introduced. Apart from the Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Trades - which is a school that admits at most thirty young (<30 years) artists per year – information and training on the new graphics technologies is far from sufficient for all Malian artists. This is the reason for the creation of this unit within Soleil d’Afrique: to give all artists access to ICT tools and training programmes.

Objectives

General objectives of Soleil Artnet:

• To develop artists' creative capacity,
• To help improve the living conditions of Malian artists,
• To increase the visibility of artistic creation in Mali,
• To raise the level of artistic creation in Mali to make it more competitive internationally,
• To make Malian artists better informed so that they can have a stronger presence in international events.

Specific objectives:

• To facilitate artists' access to NICT equipment by offering them a space equipped with computers with graphics software and Internet connections,
• To make artists aware of the possibilities offered by the use of ICT in art,
• To develop the use of multimedia in artistic creation in Mali,
• To train Malian artists in the use of graphics software,
• To create a website to disseminate social and cultural information on Mali and exhibit the work of Malian artists and craft workers,
• To create a communication platform for artists,
• To develop spaces for meetings and dialogue among artists.

Development Impacts

The beneficiaries of the project are:

• Computer graphics designers: for the design of layouts, posters and advertising settings,
• Photographers: for image digitisation and processing,
• Plastic artists: for image processing, decoration, and design of layouts, illustrations and other artistic work,
• Art students: initiation and training in multimedia art,
• Print-shops: editing and insertion of information in newspapers and other publications,
• Craft workers: digitisation and diffusion of images of their work.

The development impacts on users of this project reside in making them more productive and knowledgeable to render them more competitive internationally.

Results

To date, the project has achieved at least 55% of its objectives. More than twenty artists have been trained in multimedia, and the number of specific training offerings is increasing steadily.

Where print-shops are concerned, about ten graphic designers have been trained, and demand for such training is also growing. In addition, Soleil Artnet has provided individual training to a number of students at the National Institute for the Arts (INA) and the Conservatory of Multimedia Arts and Trades.

Artists make a small financial contribution for their training and the use of the graphic design space. For the moment, these resources cover only 42 to 45% of the cost of Internet connections, electricity, upkeep and staff.

Budget

The budget for two years is €73.000, which will partly be invested in the equipment for the centre, and partly in capacity development and operational start-up costs.

Project Owner :

Soleil d'Afrique
Bamako Mali
Email: soleil@afribone.net.ml

Project Partners : ICT Development Centre (IDC)

Project Contact : IICD