About wAi Africa

The Women's Arts Institute Africa (wAi Africa) is an African organisation which was started in 2006 in Ghana to encourage women in the arts to discover solutions to societal problems using the arts. The organisation seeks to mobilise women in the arts to create platforms for business and academic dialogues on the arts, generate practical knowledge on the arts, integrate the arts into government policies, and advocate for the use of the arts as a development tool in Africa.

Communication Strategies: 

wAi Africa works with governments, organisations, communities, professionals, businesses, and academic institutions to promote the use of the arts for development. This is done through a wide range of activities including programmes, consultancies, inventions research and theory propagations, policy implementation, mobilisation, advocacy, provision of services, activism, and campaigning.

wAi Africa's objectives and activities include:

• facilitating cross-country exchanges of information and ideas on the arts among arts practitioners, educators, business organisations, government agencies, academic institutions, and international organisations for and with particular reference to Africa;
• encouraging, assisting, and enhancing activities that advance knowledge and development of African women's arts business operations;
• cooperating with governments, businesses and development organisations, individuals, and academic institutions to promote wAi Africa's objectives;
• providing think tank and invention opportunities and outlets for women in the arts for the advancement of solutions to development in Africa;
• organising conferences and seminars to enable women in the arts and other stakeholders to present their researched propositions and inventions, thereby creating an interactive environment for participants to share, network, and exchange relevant information with each other to effect change;
• establishing and maintaining African Women's Arts Galleries and Museums with e-shops in North, South, East, West, and Central Africa;
• building the capacity of women's arts organisations and supporting them with resources to increase their effectiveness and visibility; and
• publishing an annual Status of Women in the Arts Africa review journal.

Specific wAi Africa's projects include:

• Immortalising Women's Response to Slave Trade Project: This project focused on immortalising women's response to the slave trade in two ways. Firstly, on women's response to combat the slave trade and secondly, on women's response to protecting their husbands and children during the slave trade, and their strategies for survival. This project consisted of validation meetings among key stakeholders, research and data collection, acquisition of space/land, and the erection of a statue.
• wAi Africa Arts Project Videos: In this project WAI Africa produced video clips which aimed to raise awareness about climate change.

Development Issues: 

Arts for Development.