About ARA
Funded by the Mellon Foundation, the Arts Research Africa project in the Wits School of Arts consists of a range of activities designed to spark dialogue, stimulate practice, enable research and inspire collective engagement around the question of artistic research in Africa.
ARA facilitates artist residencies, conferences and symposia, and provides grants to staff members and postgraduate students pursuing artistic research projects in the Wits School of Arts. We also experiment with new formats for the presentation of artistic research, such as the pecha kucha showcase for postgraduate work and dynamic peer2peer PhD colloquia. In terms of wider outreach, ARA has supported the development of www.ellipses.org.za, an online publication and peer reviewed digital platform for the dissemination of artistic research.
A series of ARA podcasts available on all the major podcast platforms under “Arts Research Africa” explore questions related to artistic research through dialogues with practitioners both international and African. The ARA publications consolidate activities such as conferences and artist residencies as Open Access books, available as online and print-on-demand editions.