The Gathering seeks to assemble artists from Africa and its diaspora with the purpose of enabling critical cross-border conversations. The inaugural Gathering saw 52 artists and art practitioners from 12 countries come together in a three day retreat in Naivasha, Kenya. In future, we aim to grow the number of artists invited and initiate a platform that can feasibly rotate in location.
The Gathering takes the form of a two to three-day symposium, presenting matters of concern to African artists.
The platform offers space for artists to interrogate and engage with the relevance of their positionality in relation to the continent. The space continues to offer practicing artists a platform to engage with each other across generations and borders. Moreover, The Gathering provides African artists a chance to interact with each other outside of an institutional context. Convened to strengthen collectivity, the Gathering was begun with the aim of fostering artist-oriented networks of support and continues to do so.
The Gathering is a space that allows artists to further reflect on their work and practice in relation to their communities and to other communities of artists across the continent. With each iteration, the Gathering continues to seek to inspire intellectual rigour and dynamism amongst African artists.