Building Beyond Mentorship: Are you an artist, designer or mid-career creative with 5-10 years experience in architecture, design or spatial practice, whose work is dedicated to (re)imagining the future of your African city? The Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development invites you to apply to the Building Beyond Mentorship programme and define the future of public space and community in your city by activating the imagined possibilities of your localised context.

Cities are more than just places to live and work; they are home to communities, expressions, knowledge systems, economies and beliefs, and they are crucial spaces for the formation of the identities that shape their lives. Globally, the pressure on cities is growing exponentially, particularly on the African continent.

It is necessary to engage in critical questioning; to reflect on their way of life and what the future might hold for them. What are the processes that define their shared spaces, what are the forms through which they should be pursued, and who will participate in shaping them?

Benefits Building beyond the mentoring programme 

• The programme consists of peer group sessions, guest speaker sessions and two in-person intensives in the form of 'lab weeks' - one on the African continent and one in the Netherlands - where there will be further opportunities for exchange and building your network. In addition to this, each participant receives a prize of €10,000 and guidance from mentors to work on the concept of a body of work described in their application.

Eligibility criteria Building beyond the mentoring programme 

• You have ±5-12 years' relevant professional experience
• You come from, live or work in Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Tunisia, South Africa, Uganda or South Sudan.
• And you are an artist, designer or creative person whose individual practice is linked to design, public space, architecture, activism, politics and digital space.
• The Prince Claus Fund and the Creative Industries Fund NL have a broad disciplinary understanding of arts and culture. When they refer to artists and cultural practitioners, they mean people who have an individual artistic practice. People who are arts managers, animators, university researchers or others without an individual artistic practice do not fall into this category and are therefore not eligible to apply.
• Please note that previous Prince Claus Fund winners are not eligible to apply unless their previous project is completed and closed before the end of 2023.
• Participation
  • The programme is expected to commence in February/March 2024 and will continue steadily for a period of one year. The mentoring programme will communicate expectations in a timely manner, and the programme schedule will be shared with participants in December 2023 to give participants time to make arrangements for their participation.
  • From the start of the programme in February/March 2023, selected participants must be available to actively engage in all aspects of the mentoring programme, including scheduled meetings, general communications and travel. In general, this will require participants to prepare for and participate in mentoring for approximately 2.5 hours per week, in addition to the 2 weeks reserved for face-to-face mentoring intensives. Continued participation depends on this active commitment.
  • The Building Beyond Mentorship programme covers the costs associated with the mentoring programme itself, including travel and visa costs. Individuals are responsible for their own travel insurance. Further details of expenses covered will be provided to successful applicants in due course.

For more information, please visit the Building beyond mentoring programme .