The Emerging Artist Exchange of the African Diaspora Consortium (ADC) is  a year-long, international artist development model for aspiring visual, musical, and theatrical artists. The program consists of 12 participants who are emerging artists, from four countries/territories (i.e., the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Bermuda), including one visual, musical, and theatrical artist from each location.  Artists will be organized into three cohorts,  each cohort representing an art discipline, and engage in programmatic activities as a unit. The Emerging Artist Exchange consists of two major components, (1) The Artist Exchange, whereby cohorts will travel as groups to partner countries four times during the course of the year to participate in live seminars and community activities; and the  (2) On-line Master Artist Seminar, led by leading artists. The Master Artist Seminar is designed to provide artist development and cohort/group interaction.

The Emerging Artist Exchange is designed to help emerging artists become familiar with ways to use art as a tool to enhance communication, interconnectedness,  education and economic uplift among African diasporic cultures.  The program will focus on learning indigenous characteristics of the arts  that are both similar and unique to partner countries and regions for the purpose of creating new and different paradigms for these disciplines.

Participants will use digital storytelling, develop an on-line portfolio, engage in the local community art activities in each of the partner countries, and develop a year-long Art Community Engagement Plan. The program activities will build over the year culminating in a group project presentation in New York.

The Artist Exchange

As part of the Emerging Artist Exchange , participants/cohorts will participate in travel excursions to partner countries, four times during the year, each visit extending over a 15 day period.  During these  international visits, participants will attend the African Diaspora AP Course Content Seminars and engage in work involving the the local art communities.

The African Diaspora AP Course Content Seminars will educate artists on issues relevant to the African Diaspora. These seminars will be  attended by all emerging artist  cohorts (i.e., visual, musical, theatrical) as well as  students enrolled in the African Diaspora AP Course. Seminars will also provide opportunities for connecting/networking and collaboration among all participants.

Following the daily seminars, artists will participate in local art community activities coordinated by Partner Artist who represent the host country. These activities will allow participants to immerse in the artistic culture indigenous to the host country/region. At the culmination of each  country visit, emerging artists are expected to create a digital storytelling piece that reflects how the experience has changed/impacted him or her as an artist.

Master Artist Seminar

The Master Artist Seminar is designed to cultivate the unique artistic "voice" of each artist, provide a platform for emerging artists to collaborate on projects and  support the artist in creating mechanisms by which to engage the global art community and African diasporic cultures throughout the world. Activities will include both synchronous live meeting events and modular asynchronous content through an on-line platform.

The seminars will be facilitated by Leading/Master Artists whose work has been widely acclaimed by the art community. There will be two Module assignments, consisting of both collaborative and independent work, over the course of each quarter. Activities will include on-line discussions, digital storytelling, and Artist Biography and Philosophy development, etc.

By completing this program, the emerging artists will be able to:

• Develop a Digital Artist Bio
• Develop a Digital Artist Philosophy

• Develop an on-line portfolio
• Create an on-line presence in the African diasporic art community
• Use the art as a mechanism to strengthen the local community
• Design and present a collaborative art piece
• Develop ways to educate others who are unfamiliar with African diasporic artwork
• Identify and discuss the incorporation of  indigenous characteristics of art unique to partner countries and the regions they represent influenced by the African diaspora
• Identify and discuss the similarities and distinctions in art among partner countries in order to foster/enhance communication and relationships across intra- and inter- communities
• Discuss how these art forms connect, uplift and foster communication intranationally and internationally (across the African diaspora), and broader ethnic communities
• Identify common challenges (i.e., economically, educationally, etc.) faced by emerging and seasoned artists, of African descent, and identify strategies by which these challenges might be  addressed
• Create new and different paradigms for the arts reimagined as advancing social justice and advocacy
• Develop a collective work of art that reflects the African diasporic experience

• Live Online Discussion

• Online Discussion Boards
• Blogging
• Digital Storytelling
• Reflection
• Online Tutorials