Supporting music and cultural exchange with South Africa
We are excited to be supporting the EU Delegation to South Africa and the Music in Africa Foundation on MusicXwords, a new initiative that aims to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange between musicians and spoken word artists in South Africa. It will provide training to participants and offer them showcasing opportunities in South Africa and across Europe, while actively strengthening collaboration between South African artists and European festivals, bookers and programmers.
MusicXwords was launched in August 2021 with an open call targeting musicians and spoken word artists in South Africa to apply for a chance to participate in the programme. Selected participants will take part in a workshop in Johannesburg, with 10 of them selected by a jury to showcase their work at a virtual concert attended by European cultural event promoters and organisers. After the showcase, five performers will be selected to participate to European festivals in 2022.
The initiative will also offer participants access to a tailored European festival directory, which they will use to explore new partnerships and opportunities.
The MusicXwords project is an initiative by the EU Delegation to South Africa, implemented in partnership with the Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) and supported by the Cultural Relations Platform.
For more information, visit the official website.
Our partners for this project
Since the establishment of the EU Delegation in South Africa in 1994, the EU and South Africa (SA) saw rapidly expanded cooperation. The relations were strengthened in 2007 with the establishment of the EU-SA Strategic Partnership, a forward-looking platform that facilitates wide-ranging cooperation between the two parties. A range of dialogues between the EU and South Africa allow to share experiences in areas of common interest, or where challenges have to be faced. Areas covered include education, health, energy, the environment, macro-economic policies, human rights, peace and security. The partnership is broad and comprehensive and covers political, trade and development interests, as well as cultural relations.
The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) is a pan-African, non-profit organisation based in Rosebank, Johannesburg, with satellite offices in East, West and Central Africa. The MIAF’s mission is to support the African music sector through promoting knowledge exchange and creating opportunities and capacity for music professionals. The foundation does this in two ways: digitally via the Music In Africa website and offline through training programmes, artist mobility programmes, workshops, concerts, lobbying, conferences and other related initiatives.
