Fundraiser: Support new peer-led curatorial initiative for contemporary arts in Zambia

Collective Cares is a new peer-led curatorial initiative for contemporary arts in Zambia, created by freelancers. Zambia’s artistic landscape is rich in expressions but lacks visibility, infrastructure, and support. To improve this, we are creating a hybrid — both physical and digital — space for conversation, research, and collaboration. Framing curation as a practice of care, we root ourselves in solidarity and critical friendship over competition and collusion.

This is a not-for-profit initiative centring on the long-term benefit for the contemporary arts community in Zambia. No big money or institutional backing. Just people — forming and nurturing community, criticality and opportunity from the ground up. Therefore, we need your support to gain self-sustaining momentum. Join us in shaping a more mutually caring, connected, and sustainable ecosystem for contemporary arts in Zambia.  

WHY YOUR SUPPORT MATTERS
Your contribution fuels a freelancer-run movement creating paid, lasting opportunities for artists and curators in Zambia. It helps us:

・Create Zambia’s new peer-led curatorial network;
・Launch and maintain a well-built online platform for hybrid activities;
・Fund creative events and fair artist fees;
・Nurture sustainable landscape for present and future generations in arts;
・Promote contemporary arts in Zambia through critical thinking and engagement.

No big money. No institutions. Just people — forming and nurturing community, criticality and opportunity from the ground up. Join us in shaping an even more mutually caring, connected, critical, and sustainable ecosystem for contemporary arts in Zambia.

WHY IT'S NEEDED
Zambia’s artistic landscape is rich in expressions but lacks visibility, infrastructure, and support. Creative practitioners face:

・Few chances to share or discuss their work;
・Little local appreciation without outside validation;
・No central platform connecting the arts community;
・Competitive, one-off, or foreign-dependent funding;
・No shared platform or advocacy for fair, sustainable practice;
・Limited curatorial education and discourse.

To improve this, we are creating a hybrid — both physical and digital — space for conversation, research, and collaboration. We grow slowly, believing that an intimate approach with mutual care, not speed, creates lasting change. Framing curation as a practice of care, we centre solidarity and critical friendship over competition and collusion. We’re here to shape a change that from the ground up — together.

WHAT WE DO
Offline: Host conversations, studio visits, writings, and experimental collaborations among curators and artists.

Online: Build a living platform where peers share research, archives, and curated features. Artists can rent affordable pages to connect, promote, and sell their work and service.

WHO WE ARE
Co-led by freelance curators Luyando Muleya (Lusaka-born, Livingstone-based) and Naoko Mabon (Japan-born, Scotland-based), Collective Cares is powered by a growing network of Zambian and international peers, including: Chibuye Changwe (Lusaka-born, Brussel-based); Kabila Stéphane (DR Congo-born, Berlin-based); Lifang Zhang (China-born, Beijing-based); Samba Yonga (Lusaka-born, Lusaka-based); and Sana Ginwalla (Lusaka-born, Lusaka-based).

To find out more about what we have planned, please contact Luyando or Naoko at: team [at] collectivecares-zm.net.