Djaram’art 2026 and African Vogue
From June 16 to 21, 2026, the “African Vogue” Regional cooperation program held its first general meeting, organized as part of the Djaram’Art International Puppetry Arts Festival in Toubab Dialaw, near Dakar, Senegal.
This meeting allowed the partners to take stock of the project’s progress, which runs through 2028. Representatives from Mali and Guinea-Bissau, as well as a delegation from the ASSITEJ Executive Committee, also took part in the discussions.
To mark the launch of the festival, the Grand Théâtre National de Dakar hosted an international meeting during which festival delegates, Senegalese artists, and representatives from institutions and civil society worked together to identify the conditions necessary for the development of arts for young audiences in the subregion. This meeting received extensive media coverage.
In addition to participating in working sessions, attendees watched performances, met artists and professionals from diverse backgrounds, and took part in the festival’s highlights. These opportunities for exchange fueled discussions on the challenges facing the performing arts for children and young people, while fostering dialogue among the subregion’s various cultural contexts.
ASSITEJ Senegal was also pleased to present to the delegates the results of the “Lambe Lambe” training workshop it had organized with artist Nina Vogel (Brazil) for ten artists from the region. This form of puppetry, which uses recycled materials, allows artists to create and perform for children completely independently, regardless of technical conditions. This technique will be used to produce the “Vogue Africaine” shows in Senegal.
The project’s next general meeting will take place in December 2027 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as part of the PAJE festival. In the meantime, training sessions will continue in the various participating countries, with the goal of creating as many shows as possible.
The “African Vogue” program, supported by the European Union and ASSITEJ, uses artistic creation to promote education, social inclusion, and the development of children and young people in West Africa through training, creative projects, and artistic exchanges.
Toward the First “Vogue Africaine” Event
The ASSITEJ West African Regional Cooperation Project is preparing for its first General Meeting. It will take place during the Djaram’art International Puppetry and Related Arts Festival in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, from June 15 to 21, 2026. The event will bring together artists and delegates from the three partner countries (Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal), certain professionals from the associated countries (Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Togo), as well as a delegation from the Executive Committee of ASSITEJ International.
The meeting marks the conclusion of Phase 1 of the project, which focused on needs assessment, defining specifications for the production of performances in 2026–2027, and developing a training plan involving as many participants as possible in the region. Phase 2 will focus on the creation of performances and, at that time, the implementation of training programs.
The objective of the project, funded primarily by ASSITEJ under the European Creative Europe program, is the development and structuring of performing arts for children and young people in West Africa. The actions implemented aim both to support artistic creation in the region and to enhance young audiences’ access to the arts and cultural life.
For more information: https://assitej-international.org/pdfviewer/regional-cooperation-programme-en/?auto_viewer=true#page=&zoom=auto&pagemode=none
African Vogue
“African Vogue”, the regional cooperation project for young audiences in West Africa presented by the ASSITEJ Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal centers, has been selected by ASSITEJ International as part of its International Regional Cooperation Program launched last November. This program “consists of a series of activities designed to develop areas of strategic importance at national and regional levels”, within the performing arts communities for children and young people. It’s an immense joy for the project’s initiators, and before us, three years of work in the service of artistic communities and children in these three countries, as well as in the associated countries of Benin, Guinea Bissau, Mali and Togo.
The aims of “African Vogue” are to strengthen the skills of professionals in the sector, and to promote distribution: to produce quality shows, and enable as many young spectators as possible to appreciate them, to bring professionals together at international festivals to share experiences and reinforce each other’s skills.
The project is divided into three phases, each culminating in a general meeting at an international festival in one of the project’s three host countries: In June 2026 at the “Djaram’art” International Puppet Festival in Senegal, in December 2026 as part of PAJE (Partages artistiques pour la jeunesse), in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and, finally, at the prestigious Marché Africain des Arts de la Scène (MASA), in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The first phase (2025 – 26) will be devoted to drawing up common specifications for the creation of a show for each country, a “ Cookbook ”, meeting the criteria identified during the preparatory work:
• Creativity and high artistic quality;
• Free artistic form (discipline) and audience (age range) according to each partner’s priorities;
• Budget adapted to resources;
• “All-terrain” shows, designed for mobility;
• Sustainability and low ecological impact;
• Involvement of the national artistic community and training of young practitioners.
Drafting of the Recipe Book will be accompanied by an assessment of needs and opportunities in each country, and the definition of a professional training plan covering all the chain’s professions: Dramaturgy, Production, Administration, Diffusion, Mediation, Advocacy.
During this period, a systematic search will be made for funding to supplement the ASSITEJ grant.
The second phase (2026 – 27) will involve production of the shows and implementation of the training plan. The latter will be based primarily on exchanges of knowledge across the sub-region, including associated countries and structures, during creative residencies, seminars and specialized training courses.
Communication will also be encouraged, through public presentations of current creations, awareness-raising campaigns aimed at institutions and the media, and applications to international festivals.
The final phase (2027 – 28) will focus on the circulation of works created as part of “Vogue Africaine”. This will include local and, as far as possible, international tours, and the organization of a special event for young audiences at MASA, around the presentation of the shows. Sharing experience and making information available, particularly to artistic communities in low-income countries in ASSITEJ networks, will be the main objectives of the project evaluation.
Equality between women and men, and between girls and boys, is a cross-cutting priority of the project, to which each of its actions must respond.
Starting in September 2025, “Vogue Africaine” will be run in close collaboration with the ASSITEJ Executive Committee and its networks.
Through this work, we hope to develop recognition of the social and economic potential of creation for young audiences, and of the fundamental rights of children to enjoy art and cultural life. Beyond the sub-region, we hope to finally inscribe the creativity and aesthetic richness of West Africa and its artists in the networks of global young audiences.
