Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform is a new programme from Art Jameel and the British Council that supports ambitious arts projects that engage with the climate emergency. Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform is designed specifically to diversify and increase support for practitioners in the Arab world and builds on findings and key priorities that emerged through the Culture and Climate Summit, a two-day workshop and seminar exploring culture’s role in addressing the climate emergency, jointly organised by Art Jameel and the British Council in March 2023.
The Anhar selection process will see expert juries consider proposals from individual practitioners making new work and instigating community projects through to large-scale international collaborations, via grassroots institutions actioning practical solutions to reduce their carbon footprint.
Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform kicks off with a three-tiered open call that invites individual artists, collectives and cultural organisations based in eligible countries in the MENA region to submit proposals that meaningfully engage with the climate emergency.
The programme aims to:
- Support creative practitioners producing cultural projects that engage with the climate emergency, raise awareness and inspire engagement.
- Support cultural organisations in refitting spaces for energy efficiency and renewable energy use and/or the implementation of processes aimed at tracking and reducing carbon emissions and waste.
- Support experimental and creative approaches to cultural production that centre local, community-based and intersectional perspectives.
- Facilitate peer exchange, stimulate meaningful connections, international and interdisciplinary collaboration while expanding and strengthening a regional network of cultural practitioners engaged with the climate emergency.
There are three award tiers:
- Tier 1: Awards grants of £1000 to £5000 ($1000 to $6000) to individual artists and collectives working on climate-related projects and proposals.
- Tier 2: Awards grants of £5000 to £10000 ($6000 to $12,000) to cultural organisations to reduce their carbon and waste footprint through the development and implementation of a decarbonisation strategy, including material works and investments in renewable energy infrastructures.
- Tier 3: Awards grants of £25,000 to £50,000 ($30,500 to $70,000) to support collaborations between UK and MENA artists, collectives, networks and/or cultural organisations seeking to develop a large-scale artistic response to the climate emergency, with at least a component of the project taking place in a MENA country.
Applicants must be based in one or more of the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya , Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
