Training and internationalising artists
Supporting participation in international networks and raising recognition of emerging artists
The PALOPs (Portuguese-speaking African countries) remain fairly isolated within both the African and global artistic scenes despite the growing appreciation of African art in recent years. The national funding available for this area is only limited and the existing and attainable international sources of financing are dependent on bilateral cooperation agreements and the sphere of political relationships prevailing among member states.
Supporting the internationalization of artists from the PALOP through training and international mobility serves as an important catalyst for advancing their careers.
In this context, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation focuses on providing support in the fields of visual arts, exhibition curation, and performing arts.
This support is reflected in mobility grants for artists seeking to participate in international residencies, funding for artistic institutions in the PALOPs and training for artists and curators.
Mobility grants for the participation of PALOP artists in international artistic residencies
These travel grants are designed to enable PALOP artists to participate in international artistic residencies outside of their countries of origin, fostering their dialogue with other contemporary and creative artistic contexts, promoting the international recognition of these artists and enabling their international circulation. The supported disciplines include visual arts such as drawing, sculpture, photography, performance, painting, and video.
Support for artistic institutions attributing artist residency grants
International artistic residencies in the visual arts (design, sculpture, photography, performance, painting and video) aim to provide quality training alongside the creation and mobility of national artists and residents in PALOP member states through establishing knowledge and sharing networks, while also encouraging moments of reflection, experimentation and dialogue not only among artists but also with other players in the artistic world.
Within this framework, the Gulbenkian Foundation aims to support institutions located in the PALOPs and enable them to host artistic residencies.
Artistic residencies supported in 2024
UpCycles
A creative audiovisual residency focused on repurposing audiovisual archives to create works of art across diverse artistic disciplines. The initiative aims to blend the immersive experience of an in-person artistic residency with the benefits of remote and online interactions, fostering stronger connections between artists and their audiences while supporting emerging PALOP artists.
Promoter: Amigos do Museu do Cinema Association
Location: Mozambique
Nature Residency
This residency offers artists a platform for interdisciplinary collaborations that dissolve boundaries between artistic fields. It includes discussions on decolonization, contemporary art, and the history of art in Mozambique with Filimone Meigos, a guided tour of street art led by the Maputo Street Art group, an exchange of experiences centered around Mukhambira, and a workshop with Elia Gemuce from the d'Gema Art Gallery.
Promoter: Associação para a Promoção de Arte Empty Room
Location: Marracuene and Maputo, Mozambique
Scenes of dance, scenes of life
This residency focuses on exploring mural painting techniques in public spaces, using art as a tool to enhance cultural exchange and promote social well-being. Participants will receive training from the project curator, Nú Barreto, and collaborate closely with the Galeria Jovem painting group and dancers from the Netos de Bandim group throughout the process. The residency aims to highlight the relationship between movement and painting, exploring how bodily expression can be translated into visual art.
Promoter: Netos de Bandim Cultural Group
Location: Guinea Bissau
I among Us
This multidisciplinary proposal explores female languages and identity through research, production, and exhibition, curated by Rómulo Rosa. The project engages with artistic paradigms inspired by the literary work Niketche: A History of Polygamy by Paulina Chiziane.
Promoter: Visão, Propósito, Ação 20/20 Association
Location: Angola
Training of artists and curators
The lack of opportunities and support for emerging PALOP artists striving to integrate into global trends, particularly at the training level, prompted the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to launch short-duration training programs. These programs, offered through a tender call in partnership with teaching institutions in Portugal, focus on areas identified as essential for artistic development.
The exhibition curatorship program was held twice in collaboration with the School of Arts of the Catholic University of Portugal. It included online theoretical training composed of twelve modules covering key themes for training contemporary curators, three roundtables with special guests, and monthly meetings to discuss readings and projects. The program aimed to empower human resources with skills in curatorial research and practice within the contemporary visual arts field. Topics addressed included conservation, collection management, art communication and digitalization, exhibition staging, and educational activities. Across its two editions, the program hosted 32 participants. The first edition was coordinated by Prof. Nuno Crespo and architect and curator Paula Nascimento, while the second was led by Prof. Nuno Crespo and Sónia Vaz Borges.
In 2024, the Gulbenkian Foundation launched its first call for tenders to support the staging of masterclasses in the performing arts, covering areas such as artistic staging and direction, scenography, performing spaces, lighting, sound design, costumes and characters, and dramaturgy. These masterclasses are designed for PALOP arts institutions, offering the opportunity to work with nationally and internationally recognized trainers of outstanding merit.
Supported masterclasses in 2024
Lighting Design and Stage Lighting for Theatre and Dance
This provided participants with training in key areas such as the Fundamentals of Stage Lighting, Colour Theory and Creative Lighting, Lighting for Theatre, Lighting for Dance, and Control Practices and Systems.
Promoter: Cultural Mindelact Association
Location: Cape Verde
Classical and Contemporary Program
Theory and Practice – conflicts, affinities, reactions. Theoretical-practical training in dramaturgy, movement and voice.
Promoter: Teatral Fladu Fla Association
Location: Cape Verde
Dramaturgy and Producing Performances for Children and Young People
Workshop on the writing/design of theatrical works and performances for children and young people and staging performances.
Promoter: Teatro para a Infância e Juventude de Moçambique International Association
Location: Moçambique
ArtCeno
A training programe on scenography and stage design that utilizes local materials.
Promoter: Universidade Pedagógica Cultural Association
Location: Mozambique
Voices on the Stage
Intensive theatre programme focusing on local narratives and gender studies.
Promoter: Luarte Association
Location: Mozambique
Choreographic Composition and Moving Dramaturgy
Mukur-mukur is an attitude that smothers culture and all its diversity, its various voices and languages, the dances and traditions, the movement of time and its time.
Promoter: Netos de Bandim Cultural Group
Location: Bissau, Guinea Bissau.
2024 marked the centenary of the birth of Amílcar Cabral, and to commemorate this milestone, the Gulbenkian Foundation and the research centre Hangar organized the artistic residency “Affective Ecologies” within the framework of Cabral’s legacy, emphasizing his contribution to the affirmation of African culture. This residency brought together four PALOP artists in Lisbon for two weeks of reflection on creative and artistic processes, supporting the experimental production of new works while fostering cultural exchanges with the public and the international artistic community, particularly in relation to the African context.