MARSAD – Mediterranean Action and Research for Sustainability and Development

Main applicant: Racines (Morocco)
Partners: Our Culture First (Tunisia) / El Madina for Performing and Digital Arts (Egypt) / Me’Zaf (Lebanon)
Implementation: Morocco – Tunisia – Lebanon – Egypt
Project duration: February 2017 – January 2018
Project code: 02-03118

marsad

MARSAD – Mediterranean Action and Research for Sustainability and Development aimed to create a collective platform of research, implementation, monitoring and observation of cultural policies in the region, in order to ensure an efficient advocacy of the institutions. The platform plans to grow and include more partners to become a reference in the South Med region.

MARSAD has set-up research and diagnosis on cultural policies in the partners’ countries (education, training, diversity, governance, production), to share expertise between partners, to strengthen the network of cultural operators in the region, and to set-up a common platform providing data & information about cultural policies in the region. In the long-term, the goal is to establish a regional Observatory for Cultural Policies providing data, research, studies and recommendations on cultural policies in the region in order to advocate for and strengthen the capacities of cultural actors, to implement cultural policies that are useful for the population, and sustainable for artists in their respective countries. 

Racines is a Moroccan non-profit organisation advocating for the integration of culture into public, human, social and economic policies. Racines is born from the desire of Moroccan cultural actors, convinced that the issue of culture is common to African countries (weakness of cultural policies, lack of involvement of the States, non-recognition of culture as a human right, weak creative industries, lack of protecting artists’ rights, lack of training in cultural jobs…). Racines’ projects are articulated around cultural policies (research, advocacy, mapping), arts and culture for social change, entrepreneurship, cultural management training, artistic freedom, artists’ rights and status.

MARSAD is a project lead by Racines and developed in partnership with:

  • Our Culture First,an association based in Tunis, Tunisia, works on promoting cultural initiatives at national and local level, through capacity development approaches and a national exchange platform.
  • El Madina for Performing and Digital Arts, based in Alexandria, Egypt, develops projects through training, production, and management of culture spaces.
  • Me’Zaf, based in Beirut, Lebanon, is a musical cultural initiative whose main focus is the authentic music of the Levant. By implementing research projects and musical activities intends to reintegrate this music in our current scene, as a contemporary creation tool.

Links:

Racines

Website: www.racines.ma

Website: www.artmap.ma

Website: www.pratiquesculturelles.ma 

Facebook pages:

hwww.facebook.com/RacinesMaroc/

www.facebook.com/LaCultureEstLaSolution

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/107702075957633

Me’Zaf

Website: www.mezaf.org

Our Culture First 

Website: www.oct.org.tn

El Madina for Performing and Digital Arts 

Website: www.elmadinaarts.com

MASARD

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Marsad2017/