PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018

In 2018, we hosted twenty-four artists from eleven countries on five continents. You can read about the artists’ individual experiences on the following pages.

For the fifth consecutive year, we celebrated a partnership with the state cultural agency FUNCEB — the Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia — to bring local writers to Sacatar. These local artists significantly enrich the experiences of the international artists in residence, some of whom know little or nothing about the rich diasporic culture of Bahia, Brazil. This year’s laureate was Tatiele Silva: fundacaocultural.ba.gov.br

For the eighth consecutive year, we partnered with Africa Centre to bring highly qualified artists from across Africa. This year’s laureate was the South African musician/composer Cara Stacey: africacentre.net
We also partnered for the first time with the People’s Palace Project in London, with funding through the British Council. This partnership awarded a residency to the British author Victoria Bulley: peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk

We extend our gratitude to these institutional partners.

We hosted six former Fellows, each returning for a second residency. Among the six was Uruguayan/Dutch photographer Diana Blok, who returned fifteen years after her first residency in 2003.

We held an Open Call for artists of all nationalities, ages and disciplines. Over a brief six-week period we received 310 applications from fifty-nine countries. Forty pre-screeners around the world recommended forty-four artists to a Final Selection Committee. This committee, comprised of five arts professionals of diverse backgrounds, recommended twenty-three artists from fourteen countries for the 2019-2020 Fellowships to Sacatar.

Through a special residency for a single artist or group we call Sacatar Solo, we hosted the ground-breaking band Baiana System in August. The band revolutionized the sound of Carnaval in Bahia, uniting the traditional inventive guitar improvisations of the ‘guitarra baiana’ with elements of electronic house music. They premiered their new compositions at the Festa do Caboclo in January 2019 in Itaparica, the annual celebration of the pivotal role the community of Itaparica played in expelling the Portuguese from Brazil on January 7, 1823.

(Extract from the 2018 Sacatar Annual Report)
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