List of Facilitators:

  • Julia Grosse: Editor –in-Chief and Co-Founder of Contemporary And, journalist
  • Aicha Diallo: Managing Editor of Contemporary And,  Educationist and Cultural Producer
  • Yvette Mutumba: Curator and Co-Founder of Contemporary And
  • Bim Adewunmi: a UK based freelance journalist and blogger, specialising in popular culture, feminism and race. Bim blogs at www.yorubagirldancing.com and currently writes for The Guardian, UK
  • Tolu Ogunlesi: Lagos based freelance journalist and Features Editor for NEXT, a daily Nigerian newspaper. In 2009 Tolu was awarded the Arts and Culture prize in the annual CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards, as well as shortlisted for the inaugural PEN/Studzinski literary prize.
  • Obidike Okafor: Lagos based freelance journalist for magazines and online media organizations. Obidike was awarded art journalist of the year in 2009 by the Society of Nigerian Artists(SNA) Lagos Chapter, and was a nominee for art journalist of the year 2011 in the Nigerian Art Expo awards.
  • Sean O'Toole a writer and co-editor of CityScapes, a critical journal for urban enquiry. Sean lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

BACKGROUND

Nigeria has a developing arts and entertainment sector that currently contributes 1.2% to the GDP. This sector is however highly undervalued and struggles to receive the right amount of attention. The role of the general media, specifically the culture journalists, in drawing attention, appreciation and action towards this sector is important and cannot be over-emphasized. But how do culture journalists write a review about an art exhibition or a theatre performance? How is a review different from a portrait or an essay? How do you work efficiently with social media channels?

About C&

Contemporary And (C&) is an online art magazine and a dynamic space for the reflection on and linking together of ideas, discourse and information on contemporary art practice from diverse African perspectives. C& is a rapidly growing cultural platform that lies at the intersection of contemporary art, art critic and digital media.