A new Africa-wide platform designed to showcase opportunities available worldwide for artists of African origin has been unveiled. Announcing the platform, initiative’s Creative Director, Olawale Oluwadahunsi, said he decided to pioneer this in the African arts space, drawing from his experience as a writer, journalist and art critic, before relocating Atlanta Georgia, United States.

His words: “The decision to launch this stems from my personal experience. As a journalist with National Mirror Newspaper, I was always searching for opportunities in the arts, because I realised there were so many which people did not know about. With such opportunities, I was able to travel to South Africa on an all-expense paid trip by the Durban Film Festival as a film critic.

“Those were the rewards for the weekly articles I was doing as a film and art critic in the newspaper then. And there are several opportunities in writing, photography, poetry, visual arts and music. That is essentially what inspired GetLit Africa. It is an all-encompassing platform, targeting Africans in the arts, seeking bigger opportunities available worldwide.”

He further explained that GetLit Africa will run both as a not-for-profit organisation and business, as its activities would graduate over time to accommodate paid subscription for resources and information.

“GetLit is structured to evolve over time into other services. Aside showcasing the various opportunities in arts, we also hope to provide the necessary trainings as regards how to apply for certain grants in the arts space globally. Unknown to many, people still travel to USA on fully-paid scholarships, but one requires the right link and information to know how all these are processed. GetLit will be availing such services,” he said.

To make the platform accessible to more Africans, it has been launched in languages such as English, French, Arabic, German, Spanish and Chinese. It is an all-encompassing platform showcasing opportunities available to Africans in every area of arts. The platform currently available at www.getlitafrica.com has interests in areas such as poetry, publishing, exhibitions, events and talent hunt.

The project is driven by young Nigerians such as Olawale Oluwadahunsi (Creative Director), Isaac Idowu (Director), Oluwatosin Ajeigbe (Project Coordinator), Temitope Oke (Associate Project Coordinator), Olumide Oyekunle (Editor) and Abisola Amusan (Head of Marketing).