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Drum: ARTWORKS
a space dedicated to the material culture of all of
humankind, in the one city on earth that could feel
like home to everyone.
And in a sense it is because of that history, that
powerful unique context, that Africa 05, a huge yearlong cultural celebration has thrived. Turn on your
radio in central London, re-tune it and slowly travel
down the frequencies and listen to the dozens of
cultural constituencies speaking to their discrete
audiences, broadcasting to their London and you get
a real sense of the complexity of the city. But visit
our mainstream museums
and galleries, and whilst the
work on display is culled from our
complex collective history, the
audience, so often do
not represent that
panorama. Whilst
it would be
wonderful if there
were great umbrella
multicultural radio stations that dealt with
everything, that is simply not how we consume our
“ What we wanted to do during Africa
05 was to broaden the number of
frequencies that we all tune into”
culture. Meanwhile the diversity model in which we
find our radio station and stay there , is comfortable,
but not too satisfactory either.
What we wanted to do during Africa 05 was to
broaden the number of frequencies that we all tune
into, to blur the interface between the mainstream
Government-funded arts sector, the commercial
entertainment industry, and the small-scale unfunded community-facing organisations: each with
their favoured constituencies, each with a particular
set of priorities, but all with a goal of engaging the
public in the broader arts. We have tried to find
ways to build equitable and flexible mechanisms
for engagement between national museums and
galleries, commercial companies and huge numbers
of individuals who may represent themselves or
communities, and also to broaden our traditional
outlook by thinking more internationally. This has
meant that many of our partners have had to
challenge their notions of what our cultural assets
might be, to question who defines them and
perhaps to think about who their partners and
audiences really might
be. Many Africa 05
partner organisations have
seen how in the three years that it has taken
to develop the programme, the demography of
London has changed – the black and minority
ethnic population of London represent a majority
in increasing areas of the city, and the notion of
‘otherness’ has shifted: and with it our
understanding of Africa.
Today Africa 05 is housed at the Arts Council, run
by a small core team of three who manage out-ofhouse teams who deal with audience development,
public relations, our website, evaluation, marketing
promotions and urban marketing. This team has had
to reconsider what participation might mean, to
Made with decommissioned weapons from Mozambique’s civil war, the Tree
of Life sculpture is one of the centrepieces of Africa 05 at the British Museum.