Intersecting Trajectories and Funding Paradigm Shifts in the Cultural Sector: A Perspective from Dakar
Résumé
In her article published in On Curating (Issue 58, 2024), Delphine Buysse offers a critical analysis of the shifting landscape of cultural funding in Dakar, examining the tensions between international donor dependence, weak public cultural policies, and emerging strategies of autonomy developed by local actors. She argues that, since independence, Senegalese cultural policy has lacked coherence and continuity, resulting in an informal and under-resourced sector heavily reliant on externally driven, project-based funding mechanisms that often fail to reflect local artistic realities. Buysse draws on the case of RAW Material Company to illustrate an alternative institutional model rooted in financial autonomy, long-term programming, and a critical stance toward donor agendas. According to her, RAW has managed to build a space for artistic and curatorial freedom by resisting instrumentalisation and rethinking funding relationships beyond utilitarian logics. She also analyzes the evolution of the Dak’Art Biennale, noting that while it has diversified its partnerships, it still suffers from structural opacity and inequity. The author ultimately calls for a reconfiguration of support systems in the cultural sector based on the notion of the commons, advocating for funding models grounded in co-construction, critical solidarity, and locally anchored frameworks that move beyond extractive aid paradigms.
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