EU –West Africa Arts Fusion Residency and Expo 2024 Rules of eligibility and selection

Nationality and residence:

• • Artists need to be of the following nationalities: Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninoise, national of one of the 27 EU Member States;
• • In addition, nationals of Ghana, Togo and Benin should be able to prove they reside in one of these three countries: Ghana, Togo and Benin;
• • Nationals of the EU Member States need to reside either in one of the 27 EU Member States, or in Ghana, Togo or Benin

Rule on verification of nationality

Artists will be asked to submit a bio page of their passport. Nationals of Ghana, Togo and Benin may also choose to upload a copy of their national identity document (as per ECOWAS rules they may cross borders using their ID card, although passports are recommended).

Rule on verification of country of residence:

Transportation and accommodation, per diem, artistic inputs costs:

• • For the EU nationals, eligible transportation costs will include the cost of return flight fare and visa from an EU Member State (excluding overseas territories, only travel costs from the European territory of the EU is eligible) or overland fare from Benin, Togo and Ghana;
• • For the Ghanaian, Togolese and Beninoise artists, eligible transportation costs will be from either Benin, or Togo or Ghana to the place of the residency in Ghana and back.
• • Artists will be provided GHC 800 per diem for each day of the 9-day programme, to sustain their basic needs and pay for meals.
• • The organiser will provide access to some sewing machines, music recording equipment, paints, canvas, and textiles. However, it is highly recommended for the artists to try and bring materials, equipment, and accessories needed for their work.

Age:

• There is no age limit, apart from lower age limit of 18 years old.

Popularity/fame:

1. There is a limit of how recognised/popular/established/famous an artist eligible to apply for Fusion should be. The programme is for rising artists who are not too popular yet.
2. Our jury members will look at the profile of each applicant artist and they are empowered to make a decision of non-eligibility of an artist due to considerable fame already surrounding her/him.

Details on the selection of Artists for the Fusion residency programme and of the winning team

The selection of artists who shall participate in the EU – West Africa Arts Fusion Residency & Expo 2024 event will be conducted with meticulous care, under the discerning eye of a seven-person jury of esteemed artists and professionals from the creative industry in Ghana. Four artists will be selected for each Art Category (fashion, music and visual arts): three from West Africa (one of Ghanaian, one Togolese and of Beninoise nationality, residing in one of the three countries: Ghana, Togo and Benin) and one from the EU (residing either in one of the 27 EU Member States, or in Ghana, or Togo or Benin) for each of the three art categories. In addition, one Ghanaian, one Togolese, one Beninoise and one EU national will be selected for each art category, thus there will be 4 musicians, 4 fashion designers and 4 visual artists selected to take part in the event, one per country of Ghana, Togo and Benin and one EU national in each art category.

As regards the specific requirement for Ghana, Togo and Benin nationals to reside in either Ghana, Togo or Benin, and for EU nationals to reside in the EU or in either of Ghana, Togo and Benin, it is stemming from two reasons: i) the objective of the programme to serve integration of artists who actually reside in either Ghana or Togo, or Benin and in case of EU nationals, who actually reside in either the EU or in one of the countries: Ghana, Togo and Benin. It is thus not oriented on Ghanaian, Togolese, Beninoise diaspora, nor to support participation of EU diaspora residing elsewhere in the world than one of the EU countries or Ghana, Togo and Benin; ii) to boost the integration of artists who are either nationals, or reside in either Ghana, Togo or Benin, and between artists from these countries and from the EU.

In case when it would be not clear what is the country of residence of an applicant artist, the residency organisers will clarify such particular cases based on where an artist would need to travel from to participate in the programme. As explained in the section on eligibility of transportation costs, eligible costs of Ghanaian, Togolese and Beninoise nationals are from Ghana, Togo, Benin, and for EU nationals are from either the EU countries or from Ghana, Togo, Benin.

The jury members will both pre-select the 12 artists (3 Ghanaian, 3 Togolese, 3 Beninoise and 3 EU nationals) to take part in the Fusion programme (through a desk evaluation work) and evaluate the artist teams at the Fusion closing event.

During the residency, artists will work in four teams, each one consisting of one fashion designer, one musician and one visual artist, whereas each one of the artists in a team will need to be of a different nationality. At the closing event the artists will showcase the works they did during the 9-day residency and the jury panel members will evaluate each team to select the one that will win the Fusion prize (details on it below)!

The teams will therefore be as follows:

	TEAM 1	TEAM 2	TEAM 3	TEAM 4
VISUAL ARTIST	Togo	Benin	Ghana	EU national
MUSICIAN	EU national	Togo	Benin	Ghana
FASHION DESIGNER	Ghana	EU national	Togo	Benin

Therefore, each of the three teams (on fashion, music and visual art) will be formed by one artist from Ghana, Togo, Benin and the EU. There will be one team without an EU national.

In order to select 12 artists from among all the applicants, the jury members will evaluate the applications in the following way: 1-5 (1-weak, 5-excellent) points will be given for answering each of the 5 questions in the application form, related to artist’s prior education and achievements as well as motivation to take part in Fusion.

The organisers of Fusion wish to mention, they do realise that Togolese and Beninoise are French speakers and that the application form with questions in English. The tight budget to organise all the aspects of the event did not allow us to make the application process bilingual for which we apologize. Our jury is sensitised of this particularity and in any case their answers to the 5 qualitative questions won’t affect their chances of getting selected for the programme, as each country has one place guaranteed for music, visual arts and fashion category.

The sample works (5 items, either 5 music pieces, of 5 visual arts pieces, of 5 fashion items - whereas for costumes top and bottom parts count as one) will also be evaluated accordingly with the following considerations:

• Innovation & Creativity: emphasise originality, uniqueness and creativity
• Material & Craftsmanship: quality of materials used and level of craftsmanship demonstrated
• Sustainability and Ethical principles: works must reflect and project sustainable and ethical practices
• Commercial Viability: arts and music market potential and commercial appeal of work
• Relevance to EU values: how well the artworks presented align with the EU values such as respect of human rights, gender equality, freedom of expression, democracy, etc.
• Technical Skill: considerable appreciation of technical proficiency displayed in artworks
• Conceptual Depth: consider the depth of concept, meaning and storytelling within the artwork

Each of the submitted art pieces will be evaluated on the scale 1-10 (1-very weak, 10 – a masterpiece).

Therefore, the maximum score the artists will be able to obtain will be 75 (25 for answering the 5 qualitative questions and 50 for the assessment of artworks submitted for the competition). Each of the 7 jury members will be assigned a part of the applications according to their expertise and each application will be assessed by 2 jury members. The final score for each application will be the median/average of the scores provided by 2 jury members. In case of a tie (e.g. two Togolese visual artists with the same score of 64), the tied applicants will be to be re-evaluated by an additional jury member and that will be the final score. The assignment of applicants to jury members will also, as far as possible, be done in relation to jury member’s prime expertise, e.g. a musician jury member will as much as possible evaluate musicians, a fashion industry member – fashion designers, a visual artist – other visual artists. Some of our jury members are versatile enough to be able to justly assess the artistic worthiness of each of our three categories. You can find the jury members over here: https://eu-fusion.org/ .

The jury panel will establish, in a descending order, the lists of artists, one list per each of the three categories and per country of nationality: Ghana, Togo, Benin, EU artists. In each art category, one Ghanaian, one Togolese, one Beninoise and one EU national with the highest score will be awarded the opportunity to embark on the residency. In case of artist’s refusal, resignation, incapacity to participate, the next best applicant from the same country of nationality will be offered it, and so on.

The 12 artists selected through desk evaluation will embark on a 9-day residency, on the coast in Kokrobite, not far from Accra, to create new works (to be presented in teams at the closing event and subject to an election of a winning team), explore cross-continental partnerships, and discover the beauty of fusion. The residency is planned for 10-18th February 2024, and the closing event, to take place at the garden of the Residence of the EU Ambassador to Ghana, is planned for 18th February (in the evening). The artwork pieces created during the residency will take centre stage. Four teams, each consisting of three artists (representing the categories of fashion, music, and visual arts), in configurations explained above, will compete for the coveted title of the winning team. The prize offered to the winning team will be of financial nature, at the maximum value of GHC 36 000, i.e. GHC 12 000 per artist (around €1 000).

The jury members will be at the closing event and assess each of the 4 teams accordingly with the same, abovementioned criteria of innovation, creativity, technical skills, relation to EU values, etc. Each team will obtain a score between 1-5 (1-weak, 5-excellent) for their joint presentation of a musical piece, visuals and fashion items as a team. The jury will seek for relation between these different arts. The more evident it is to find that interconnection in a team, the higher a team will score.

The jury members will be sat at a long table in front of the stage and adorned with 5 flags each, with numbers 1-5. The jury will show their assigned points by raising an appropriate flag at the time each team presents their joint work. There will be a team of two ushers/assistants calculating the points given this way by the jury table. The ushers will calculate the points assigned for each team and cross check to verify it is correct. In case of a tie, there will be a re-evaluation by the jury.

Should there be a budget available by the time the closing event takes place, the Fusion organisers will also envisage a public award. This award would be based on the ballot vote made during the closing event by the invited public. The maximum prize would possible be at the level of GHC 12 000, i.e. GHC 4 000 per artist in this case. This particular prize is yet to be confirmed at a later stage, when the costs relating to organisation of the closing event are better known.