TheFaceOrg: our key pillars

FACE was born out of a collaboration between two of the founders of FACE - Thandeka and Jamaine - and FUACDE (Fundación Arte y Cultura para el Desarrollo) in Costa Rica. What initially began as a friendly interaction between Thandeka Zwana and the Director of FUACDE Carol Britton fast became a recognition of the siloed nature of arts and culture that is generated and maintained by borders and isolation brought about by colonisation and division between the two continents – Africa and South & Central America. 

Key pillars of Conceptual Framework

1. Dismantling artistic and cultural hegemonies: Creatives are painfully aware of the barriers to entry into      certain platforms without approval from the global hierarchy of privilege      and power, coloniality and the colonial matrix of power; and unless their      governments actively support and provide access to these practitioners, often with extremely scarce resources, participation is reserved for the elite.
2. Building a new knowledge base for South South art and culture activism: There is a urgent need to decolonise knowledge through cross-disciplinary and sectoral dialogue to      ground alternatives, create a sense of pride in indigenous knowledge systems and to ensure that intellectual property is understood and protected. 
3. Reimagining development: Development as a western      framework is hugely distorted. We intend to engage with the      stakeholders and communities to honestly redesign what is meant by      development for whom and by whom with the intent of decolonialising      development paradigms, to ensure that our representation is accurate, fair      and self-defined.
4. Strategies for re-imagining and re-purposing resources: South-South creative solutions to re-imagining value and contributions to the global stage and re-purposing available resources to allow for the continued creation and exchange of art and culture outside the framework of traditional creative methods or endeavours.