BOGOTA
INITIATIVES
FairTunes Bogotá
We are currently back in Bogota building a professional quality studio
in a new cultural centre that will be opening in June 2011. The
studio will be open to local musicians who do not have the means to
produce their music. We have a team on the ground in
Bogota, including a paid part-time administrator who got
everything prepared for our arrival - they have been amazing! Read Jon's blog about the build and his observations of the city.
Once the Bogota studio is completed Director Jon and our amazing volunteer Tim will head to El Salado in the north west of the country to build another smaller community studio, whilst Nick will remain in Bogota to deliver music production courses. He joins them in El Salado, as does Kary who will be setting up a radio network and making a film of the Colombian experience.
Tthe small studio that we built in Ciudad Bolivar in 2009 has been moved and is currently being set up in another project in the city in San Cristobal. And soon they will be teaching and producing music from it.
Sandblast, Algeria
FairTunes has been invited by the charity Sandblast to work on a studio project with them in the Saharawi refugee camps in the Western Sahara in Algeria. Steve is currently with the Sahawaris doing a recce to see how we can help them. The idea at the moment is that along with Sandblast, FairTunes will establish studios that will be used as educational facilities from which we can train local people to use the facilities and, in turn, pass their training on to others.
Sandblast is a London-based arts and human rights charity that was established in 2005 by anthropologist and photographer Danielle Smith. It works with the Saharawis of Western Sahara, a dispossessed and marginalized community that largely live as refugees in harsh desert camps in SW Algeria. They lack a voice and visibility and have been struggling for their right to self-determination over more than three decades. Danielle started Sandblast after her long involvement working with the Saharawi people in the camps since 1991.
Due to the long period of time that the Saharawi people have been displaced from their homeland the younger generations are slowly losing their culture. Music and song is an important part of their cultural history and memory. By providing studios in which to record music, song and spoken word we can help the Saharawi to preserve their cultural heritage for generations to come.
Anno’s Africa, Kenya
We are currently developing a project in Kenya with the charity Anno’s Africa. This small UK based charity works in the slums of Nairobi to deliver artistic skills to young people through their workshops.
FairTunes will be developing a training program for young people as well as establishing recording facilities for the musicians to produce their music.
