In March 2018, the IESA arts&culture team made up of Régine Djalo, Educational Coordinator, Hafida Jemni Di Folco, head of the Africa Department, and Isabelle Logeais, head of the IESA arts&culture incubator, traveled to Dakar for the opening of a program and an incubator at the Institut Supérieur de Management.
Opening of IESA Incub' Dakar
The IESA Africa department led by Hafida Jemni Di Folco is delighted with the establishment of this partnership in Dakar. The opening of an arts&culture specialization at ISM Dakar within the Madiba Institute is a concrete example of the bridges IESA wishes to build with the continent and of the creation of programs dedicated to students and professionals. Other programs should moreover follow shortly, notably as part of a partnership with the Institution created by the artist Barthelemy Toguo at Bandjoun Station in Cameroon.
The Maliba Leadership Institute is one of the schools of ISM (Institut Supérieur de Management) in Dakar. It has developed several teaching departments: political science, communication, international relations and an arts and culture department. It is led by Samuel Faye, a jurist, specialist notably in a pan-African framework of business law in Africa (HAHODA) that allows seventeen countries to share the same legal framework and thus facilitates the transnational development of businesses.
For the teaching of the arts and culture department, the Madiba teamed up with IESA arts&culture to design the training paths and the certification engineering.
The Madiba is well established in the higher education and cultural ecosystems. It has significant potential for developing training paths that meet a pressing need among young people and professionals in the arts and culture sectors of Senegal and even beyond. As a reminder, in 2015, Senegal was designated by UNESCO as a country with strong development potential in the field of cultural and creative industries.
The training proposal carried out in Dakar jointly between IESA and ISM currently has three components:
- an art and culture option offered to students of the three other departments of the Madiba with evening and weekend classes, certified by a title at the end of the 3rd year of the option
- a 1-year professional Bachelor scheduled on weekends, certified by a title
The contents of these first two paths are deliberately general, with modules in production, distribution, knowledge of contemporary art and contemporary performing arts, legal frameworks, mediation, cultural marketing and communication, budgets and fundraising.
The training path includes, as in France, 4 modules: innovation and creativity, digital and culture, cultural entrepreneurship, prototyping. This training in Dakar could be expanded with a professional training path "production officer for music, images and urban cultures" by 2019.
- The third component is tied to setting up an Incubator in Dakar. The incubator in Dakar, as in Paris, will be a true showcase in which about ten startups will be hosted over a significant period of eighteen months.
The support for young startups will include mentoring, coaching, legal assistance, fundraising help, the provision of digital skills and training paths.
With its training program with the Madiba Leadership Institute within ISM, which, like IESA, is part of the Galileo Global Education group, the idea of learning in order to undertake was one of the goals, hence the launch in October 2018 of IESA Madiba Incub' Dakar.
Professional discussions are under way, notably with Orange Sonatel, Universal Publishing and the French Embassy in Senegal; our next on-site meeting is scheduled for the end of April in order to take part in a "culture and digital" round table organized by Orange Sonatel with the British Council.
The Dakar showcase will be identical to the Paris model: a 3-month certificate program, "Innovation and Cultural Entrepreneurship", 6 months of legal support, developers made available via ISM group engineers, and mentoring provided by the members of our selection committee.
Large companies and institutions based in Dakar are looking for support tools to professionalize the creative industries sector. We notably discussed with them the notion of intrapreneurship, which can meet specific needs for their business unit.
The Madiba Leadership Institute (ISM Group) will open a specialized bachelor’s degree in "Art & Culture" starting in the fall of 2017. This degree is aimed at students who want to work in the cultural sector, but also at players and professionals in the sector who want to upskill or certify new skills.
This double degree MADIBA LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE / IESA arts&culture (the international school for careers in culture and the art market, Grande École for Culture and Art Market Careers, a school that is a member of the Galileo-Studialis network) responds to the need to organize and showcase the current cultural and artistic effervescence, now recognized and already exploited outside African borders.
It is in response to the need to organize and showcase the current cultural and artistic effervescence, now recognized and already exploited outside the borders of Africa, that this double degree MADIBA LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE / IESA arts&culture (the international school for careers in culture and the art market, Grande École for Culture and Art Market Careers, a school that is a member of the Galileo-Studialis network) was conceived.
Professor Mohamed Dieye, President of the ISM group, recalled in his opening speech at the May 2 press conference in the ISM auditorium that the arts and culture industry is a real economic power and that it has already proven so in many countries on other continents. Notably the cases of the USA, Brazil, India, or France, with 1.5 million cultural jobs in France and a contribution of this industry to the country’s GDP 7 times higher than that of the automobile industry.
Mr. Samuel Faye, director of the Madiba Leadership Institute, for his part recalled that promoting Africa through the arts and culture was an integral part of the ISM group’s DNA, and that opening such a program in collaboration with IESA arts&culture, one of the best specialized schools with a proven international dimension, was a logical continuation of the development and commitment of the ISM group and more particularly of the Madiba Leadership Institute. It aims to offer the African continent a new generation of leaders.
Mr. Saliou Sarr, coordinator together with Ms. Sandrine Boly of the USE (Université du Savoir-être) within the ISM group, also recalls that humanitarian work, the environment, sports, and creativity are part of the group’s frameworks for reflection and action, in order to prepare leaders who, beyond their technical skills, also deploy social skills. The arts in particular have been showcased for about ten years through the ISM Talents program, which allows artistically minded students to consider, showcase, and promote their artistic output.
Boris Grebille, Director of IESA arts&culture in Paris, and Hafida Jemni, Head of the Africa Visual Arts and Culture Department at IESA arts&culture, explain that the "Art & Culture" bachelor’s degree will be made up of cross-disciplinary courses, with teachers traveling from Paris for general and technical classes but mostly teachers from the African continent, including many cultural players and entrepreneurs.
This bachelor’s degree offers 4 main training areas:
Art Market: trade and distribution of works
Cultural Production (exhibitions, audiovisual industries, performing arts, major events…)
Cultural Communication and Marketing
Sociocultural Mediation
Admission requirements:
First year: baccalaureate holders with an entry interview before a jury that includes a faculty member
Possible entry into the 3rd year: Bac+2 students with an entry interview before a jury that includes a faculty member
Cultural sector professionals with proven experience, eligible for validation of prior learning allowing them to obtain a Bac+2 equivalency
Possibility of applying for specific certifications (enrollment in one or more modules):
Any cultural player wishing to learn or strengthen a specific skill (production, financing, communication…)
The necessary involvement at the heart of Senegal’s cultural and economic fabric:
The program announces
Strong interactions with Senegalese institutions and major events, as it also aims to be a cultural player: closer ties with La Biennale de Dakar, Les Ateliers de la Pensée, the Jazz à Saint-Louis festival, Gorée sur Cours, … are planned.
An active partnership policy with the country’s economic decision-makers to make them accountable and involve them in the development of local cultural industries.
An active internship office from the first year, also building bridges with the international scene.