Arab Arts, Culture Look to Private Sector for Funding

Published November 13th, 2018 - 10:49 GMT
Viewers line up to see "Youssef Chahine: The Restoration Project," at the opening of Zawya Cinema's new location, Karim Cinema, two months ago. (Zawya Cinema and Distribution)
Viewers line up to see "Youssef Chahine: The Restoration Project," at the opening of Zawya Cinema's new location, Karim Cinema, two months ago. (Zawya Cinema and Distribution)

If there’s one thing most cultural institutions in the MENA region agree on, it’s that there’s never enough money. With revenues dwarfed by the expense of production, exhibition and performance, art platforms (many of them nonprofit) have relied on diminishing state and overseas funding to sustain themselves.

The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture has partnered with the Drosos Foundation, the Swiss arts funding body, to create a new Arts and Culture Entrepreneurship program that seeks to address the challenges of self-sustainability.

Last week, eight institutions from around the region took part in a five-day workshop aiming to teach them ways to attract investment, generate revenue and create business models.

“The nonprofit sector as a whole ... is usually dependent on one source of funding and the minute that withdraws, it pops like a balloon,” Heba Hage-Felder, AFAC’s senior program manager, told The Daily Star.

“We’re not saying all institutions should be income-generating, but, if what you offer is of public value, then how do you translate [that into offering] something back to the community you’re working in?”

Founded in 2007, AFAC is an independent grant distribution institution for the visual and performing arts in the Arab region and the diaspora. Hage-Felder says ACE was created on the heels of a 10-year study of regional arts funding, released in 2017.

The operations of cultural institutions changed significantly following the Arab Spring. As the knock-on effects of that expression of mass discontent echoes through the region, state retrenchment has seen funding dwindle, and what little is available often comes with rules and restrictions. Many arts organizations are struggling.

One such institution is Zawya Cinema and Distribution, an Egyptian art house cinema nestled in Downtown Cairo, which is represented at ACE by Managing Director Youssef Shazli and head of sales Ahmad Sobky.

“We don’t have state funding, and very little private funding,” Sobky told The Daily Star. “We have to rely on sponsors from Europe etc. [What state funding there is] is aimed toward production, not much to distribution and exhibition, which is the main focus of Zawya.

“Overall, the cultural scene is struggling with the current political and social climate,” he added.

“Post-Arab Spring was a really good launch pad for a lot of cultural institutions, which were all a product of the revolution. Following some changes in the political climate, things have changed.”

Zawya relies on outside support, filling seats with an audience and expanding its distribution arm by taking Egyptian films to TV channels, airlines, video on demand platforms, and festivals.

The obstacle is Egypt’s censorship regulations, which ban anything that touches on sex, religion or contemporary politics.

The workshop is the first in a year-long program. The eight platforms will gather twice more next year, with Drosos awarding each a grant of $25,000 upon completion of a sustainable financial strategy, created with ACE’s aid.

At this stage, many are overwhelmed by the wealth of information they’ve received, unsure what’s relevant for them and still mulling over uses for the money.

“It opened our eyes to new things, different perspectives, and showed us different models to fund ourselves,” Sobky said. “We’re going to go back with a lot to consider about how to run things in the future.”

SJ Music Productions founder Samer Jaradat says things aren’t bright for cultural bodies in Palestine. Most cultural institutions seek funding outside its borders, he says, or from the private sector.

“Cultural institutes in Palestine are in a state of development because the political state is not in our favor,” Jaradat said. “The Israeli government is waging cultural warfare and trying to suppress or destroy Palestinian art and culture.

“We have help from corporate sponsors in Palestine and this has been the common strategy for most platforms because ... the resources available in the country are few and spread thin. The way [forward is to seek] corporate sponsors and to generate our own revenue with festivals and performances etc.”

Morocco’s cultural sector is also facing shortfalls, though its prospects seem better than those in many Arab countries. Hisham Bouzid and Amina Mourid, co-founders of the 2-year-old visual arts production house Atelier Kissaria, see both sides of the coin.

“There has started to be state funding in the past five years as part of new policies in Morocco, but it doesn’t really [fund or produce projects],” Bouzid said. “The Culture Ministry has announced an open call for projects in different sectors but doesn’t give support to the multiple organizations we have, so we’re not there yet.

“The next five years,” Bouzid added, the state has expressed intentions to fund cultural production at the national and regional level, “but there is literally no budget assigned for this. They say they want to offer more, but there is no [plan].”

Mourid admits that other countries in this region are facing bigger problems. Algeria prevents its arts organizations from accepting foreign grants, for instance, and Syria suffers a fatal lack of political stability.

One cultural institution from Syria participated in ACE but its spokesmen refused to be interviewed for fear of reprisals at home.

Roaa Bzeih and Jad Hakawati, who are co-founders of Lebanon’s Minwal Theater Company, say they’ve found it difficult to access state funding.

“In Lebanon, most funding comes from international donors or the private sector,” Hakawati said.

“Some, like us, are always trying to use our performances or overhead budget as our main fund, but it never reaches more than 5 percent [of expenses]. Many institutions have been forced to shut because they can’t fund themselves.”

Lebanon’s Culture and Tourism ministries tend to fund larger events for their public relations value, or else on the basis of favoritism, he said, while neglecting more experimental work.

“‘Patronage’ is sometimes ... due to people’s connections,” Hakawati said. “We’re in a corrupted country and ... [receiving support doesn’t necessarily reflect] proposing the right stuff or [being] qualified.”

“It takes so much time and you need paperwork that, as an artist, you just don’t have,” Bzeih agreed.

“There are a lot of things that are not ready until after the performance ... so you can’t even get the funding [for] the show.”

Hakawati hopes for a less bureaucratic future with a user-friendly application website and more transparency about where the current funds are going.

Hage-Felder sees ACE as a solution to the region’s state funding conundrum, offering an alternative to reliance on national funds or private sector sponsorship. “The program is designed so it’s not a one-time workshop,” Hage-Felder said. “It’s a learning experiment. We included workshops where exchanges and candid discussions can happen.

“The mentorship idea gives a one-on-one approach with a tailored strategy,” she added. “These meetings are important to see the differences [among countries] and learn from what is out there.”

As funding providers can feel entitled to have a say in what kind of work is produced, financial independence may be a source of creative freedom for the region’s arts organizations. State funding is an admirable ideal, but it’s important to be mindful of the possible downsides of how this ideal is enacted by state actors.

“It depends on the status quo at the time, what is available and the context in which it is available,” Sobky said. “In principle, we’re all for it, but in practice we would need to ask ourselves some questions before accepting.”

This article has been adapted from its original source.

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