Who is funding the arts in the Global South?

Twasiima P. Bigirwa

When I worked in international philanthropy, it was damn near impossible to get funders to appreciate why funding programmes under the umbrella of art and culture was important. Some of the top reasons that still stay with me about why that is are:

Most programmes catered to the arts do not fit neatly into the “poverty porn” trope that the development industry thrives on. When funders (often existing outside of cultural context) decide on what they deem important in Global South societies such as ours, they still want to hear stories that are littered with signs of our suffering and tragedies. A kind of emphasis about how badly we need them. Somehow art, artistry and culture are the antithesis of this kind of struggle and scarcity narrative. Art and artistry and culture are defined as something that is for people who already have.

We too as a people have devalued the role of art in our own societies. I think now about all the ways that it manifests. Scrapping off courses offering humanities at university level. Different pay scales for teachers teaching subjects considered to be outside of the science bracket. Parents refusing their children to pursue artistic callings, and so on.

I find that so curious, and I spend a lot of time reflecting on the effects of it. A few things stay with me. The first is that art in all its forms shapes culture. It greatly influences who we know ourselves to be, what we deem important, how we remember history and think about the future. The second thing is how much of our narratives are shaped and controlled by contexts outside of our own, and all the ways that limits our image of ourselves, and our ability to be whole. We must be alive to whose narratives we are left with when we are not ourselves, or creators of our own art in all the forms it comes.

This is an excerpt of a blog. To read the piece in its entirety, head to the #ShiftThePower Treehouse.

By: Twasiima P. Bigirwa.