A Foli Arts residency across generations
Living African Culture
Two days to one week of living African arts, moving through generations, spaces and communities.
- Artists
- Solo Diarra, Sarjo Sankareh, Bafana Nhlapo, Adama Barry, Adjei Ipateng
African artistic traditions as living culture, shared between people, generations and communities.
Living African Culture is a flexible Foli Arts residency that brings music, storytelling, dance, rhythm and participation into a community over two days to one week.
Rather than bringing everyone to one event, Foli Arts can move through the places where people already meet, from kindergartens and schools to libraries, senior centres, community spaces and cultural venues. Different generations encounter different artistic experiences, while the same artists, instruments, stories and traditions create a connection across the residency.
The programme is designed together with each host. A residency may focus on only a few audiences or create a wider journey across generations.
Residency at a glance
- Duration: 2 days to a maximum of 1 week
- Format: flexible multi-programme artistic residency
- For: municipalities, festivals, cultural centres, communities and local partners
- Audiences: babies and caregivers · children · families · adults · seniors · adapted groups
- Art forms: live music · storytelling · dance · rhythm · workshops · participation
- Design: built individually with the host, around local audiences, spaces and priorities
One residency, many generations
Across generations. A residency can create encounters for babies and caregivers, kindergarten and school children, families, adults and seniors. Adapted artistic experiences can also be included for children and groups who need a more sensory, calm or individually responsive format.
Across spaces. Foli Arts does not need one dedicated venue for the entire residency. Activities can take place where the relevant audiences already are: kindergartens, schools, libraries, senior centres, cultural houses, theatres, community spaces and other local settings.
One connected artistic presence. The activities are not unrelated bookings placed side by side. The same artistic traditions, instruments, rhythms, stories and artists appear in different forms throughout the residency, creating recognition and connection across the community.
Programmes that can be part of a residency
Depending on the host and local needs, a residency can draw from BabyGroove, Afro Drumming & Movement for Children, Sensorisk musikk, Rhythm & Story, Calabash Tales, Balafon and the Talking Tree, Afro Drumming & Movement for Adults, community drumming and professional concert activity such as Solo Diarra / YIMENGA.
Not every residency includes every programme. The selection is made together with the host and shaped around age groups, institutions, available spaces, artistic priorities and the length of the residency.
Example: a week across generations
Example only. Every residency is designed individually.
- Monday, babies and caregivers: BabyGroove, with live ngoni, African lullabies and shared movement
- Tuesday, kindergarten and young children: music, rhythm and movement through Afro Drumming & Movement for Children
- Wednesday, adapted artistic encounter: Sensorisk musikk, for children who benefit from a calm, sensory and individually responsive format
- Thursday, school: storytelling, instruments, rhythm and participation through one of Foli Arts' children's performances or workshops
- Friday, seniors: Rhythm & Story, with live music, griot storytelling, song and accessible movement
- Saturday daytime, families and community: a family performance such as Calabash Tales or Balafon and the Talking Tree, combined with community drumming where it fits
- Saturday evening, concert: a professional concert such as Solo Diarra / YIMENGA as a final gathering point
Built with the host community
Living African Culture is deliberately flexible. A two-day residency may concentrate on three or four carefully chosen encounters. A full week can create a broader journey across institutions and generations. Foli Arts works with the host to decide which programmes, artists and spaces create the strongest local connection.
The goal is not to fit as many activities as possible into a schedule. It is to let African artistic traditions be met as living culture: performed, shared, listened to, danced, played and experienced together.
