On May 12, 2021 we witnessed the birth of AWANA Red de Artistas y Gestores Interculturales Comunitarios – AWANA Network of Intercultural Community Artists and Cultural Administrators by way of a Minka Cultural, a collaborative cultural encounter and virtual concert that celebrated and showcased the work of more than a dozen Andean artists. AWANA is a cultural organization that, as its name suggests, weaves together by way of communal work or minka processes of artistic production and collective reflection that emerge from the lived realities of indigenous communities themselves. This network was born as a cultural movement that responds to the precarious conditions artists face daily in Ecuador as they endeavor to sustain their work, their knowledge and meaning-making practices, and their diversity by way of their art and cultural expression.

AWANA proactively builds these community-oriented process in partnership with various cultural organizations and institutions including The Ohio State University and the K’acha Willaykuna Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Arts and Humanities Collaboration, a special initiative of Ohio State’s Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme.

Four key objectives anchor the collective efforts of this artists network:

• Giving visibility and attributing value to the work of community artists and cultural administrators
• Collectively developing cultural policies
• Raising citizens’ awareness about cultural rights
• Advocating for artistic and cultural work as worthy and respectable work

AWANA consciously recognizes that its influence and decision-making power come from lo comunitario, the community. It is from this position of communal collaboration that members of the network collectively act, build, demand and strive toward substantial and sustainable change.

We invite you to view the recording of the AWANA Minka Cultural Virtual Concert and Cultural Encounter here.

This event has been cross-posted from the OSU Global Arts and Humanities website.