This questions whether art spaces are privileged to determine what is currently seen as contemporary artistic practices, or to select which art processes are more worthy of support than others. With few exceptions, they appear to privilege artistic practices aligned with the international mainstream. In fact, it appears that artists whose work is not related to any collaborative practice receive little or no institutional support [1].

Doual’art

Doual’art is a non-profit cultural organisation and independent art centre established in Douala, Cameroon. Founded in 1991 by Marilyn Douala-Bell and Didier Schaub, the center invites visual artists, architects, and designers to reflect upon urban issues faced by local cities as they undergo exponential growth. Doual’art aims to verify whether artistic practices can play a role in land use, by participating in citizen ownership of public space and affecting urban society. The organisation’s goal is to involve the urban civil society, local public operators, and inhabitants in a process of shared responsibility concerning the management and the respect of public space. The program Ars & Urbis organizes periodical meetings with curators, urbanists, researchers, and intellectuals to reflect on urban development through contemporary art. Doual’art has already produced many contemporary public artworks through its triennial SUD and has offered them to the city.

Zoma Contemporary Art Center

Zoma Contemporary Art Center (ZCAC) is an eco-sensitive and educational artist-in-residence village with locations in Addis Ababa and Harla in Ethiopia. Founded in 2002 by curator Meskerem Assegued and artist Elias Sime, the center’s objective is to bring together multidisciplinary artists from around the world, and to develop innovative, sustainable, and environmentally conscious art projects. With its residency programs designed around different themes, the center provides local and international artists the opportunity to live in harmony with nature, develop new forms of artistic expression, experiment with new techniques and materials, and to find creative solutions to current environmental problems. Since its opening, ZCAC has been regularly hosting educational events which are part of an educational program designed with international partner institutions. The center has also collaborated with an association of art critics as well as an association of curators.

Contemporary Image Collective

Contemporary Image Collective (CIC) is an independent non-profit art initiative founded in Cairo in 2004, by a group of visual artists and professional photographers. CiC's main goal is to establish long-term exchange programs with other cities and build up cooperation with regional and international institutions that have a long-standing experience working within this framework. Since its inception, CIC has had a special interest in the many roles of the photographic image at large. Through its program named PhotoSchool, the center provides courses and workshops aimed at sustaining expansive and critical engagement with photography, both in digital and analog. CIC does not have a residency programme per se anymore, but instead invite artists on occasional residencies as part of their curated programming i.e. when the conversation, project or engagement with an artist is such that an extended residency becomes a good idea.

CCA Lagos

Founded in 2007, the Centre for Contemporary Art – CCA Lagos is an independent and non-profit organisation for the visual arts in Nigeria. The center aims to provide a platform for the development, presentation, and promotion of contemporary visual arts and cultural practices in Nigeria and the region of West Africa. Under the artistic direction of its founder Bisi Silva, CCA Lagos focuses on experimental visual art practice such as film, photography, performance, and installation, which until most recently were hardly acknowledge on the continent. The center has organized curatorial workshops, seminars, exhibitions, film screenings, and lectures in partnership with several foreign institutions. Through Asiko – its flagship professional development workshop for emerging artists and curators, CCA Lagos has improved the quality of discourse on contemporary visual arts and is raising awareness of cultural themes throughout the world.

Raw Material Company

Raw Material Company (RMC) is an independent center for contemporary art, knowledge, and society established in Dakar, Senegal. Founded in 2008 by Koyo Kouoh, RMC is an art initiative unfolding the realms of exhibition making, commissioning, knowledge sharing, and archiving of theory and criticism. Kouoh strongly believe in using visual art as a powerful tool for setting in motion social and political processes of transformation. The center runs a trans-disciplinary program and is involved in architecture, film, fashion, literature, and cuisine. RMC is organised around its resource center, Rawbase, which offers a sustained program through artist talks, portfolio review sessions, master classes, round-table discussions, and research presentation. The resource center aims to establish an extensive library of contemporary art with an emphasis on African and Africa-related practices. In addition, the art space contains a gallery for exhibitions, a residential facility for artists, and a rooftop restaurant for cultural exchange.

[1] In New Spaces for Negotiating Art (and) Histories in Africa (2015), the authors reflect on the importance of art institutions in Africa and their impact on the international art market.