By Phendu Kuta

Build the Network Interactive Installation featured in Latitudes Online's booth.

African art has never been more visible, but is the infrastructure supporting it keeping up?

As African art gains visibility and creative industries grow, it is crucial to identify the specific infrastructure challenges that must be addressed to ensure this growth is sustainable. According to the United Nations, Africa’s creative economy is estimated at around $60 billion, with the potential to reach $200 billion by 2030 if the right investment, infrastructure and policies are put in place.

Yet the growth of the creative sector also brings into focus the challenge of translating this potential into sustainable careers for the artists producing the work. Sustaining an artistic career relies on, in part, accessing funding to produce work, mentorship to develop a practice, opportunities to exhibit, and connections to galleries, curators and collectors. 

More broadly, artists’ ability to build sustainable careers is shaped by the infrastructure supporting them, the relationship between visibility and economic sustainability, and opportunities for collaboration across art and creative industries.

The infrastructure gap 

Based on surveys and interviews with visual arts experts throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, the British Council's Visual Arts Mapping Report 2023 found that the region's visual arts infrastructure is still unstable and inconsistent in terms of professional development, governmental support and institutional infrastructure, among other challenges.

The report highlights different challenges across the region. In South Africa, it identified dysfunctional government agencies; in Senegal, insufficient government support for the visual arts; in Nigeria, bureaucratic challenges with travelling exhibitions; in Sudan, limited arts infrastructure; and in Kenya, a lack of strong institutional infrastructure.

These challenges are also reflected in the practical barriers artists and galleries face when trying to operate across the continent. 

Latitudes' Business Development Director, Malaika Evans, highlights how differences in distribution networks make it difficult to move and sell artwork between African countries. Based on her personal experiences, she observes that it’s usually easier to sell and transfer art from Africa to markets outside the continent than to move it between two African countries, and the challenge is not unique to art. "Fragmented markets, logistics, customs, infrastructure and non-tariff barriers affect businesses across the continent. The difference is that the art sector is often operating at a much smaller scale, so those barriers can have an even greater impact on artists, galleries and collectors.”

Nigeria International Focus at RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2026. Photography by Anthea Pokroy.

Systems of Support

These hurdles affect more than the movement of artwork. They affect which artists can participate in the market. Co-Founder and Director of Latitudes, Lucy MacGarry, explains that infrastructure must respond to the realities of the continent, providing artists with support beyond the point of sale: “We need infrastructure designed around the realities of the continent, rather than replicas of systems developed elsewhere. That means recognising that artists need more than access to a platform at the point of sale. They need education, mentorship, production support, critical writing, logistics, digital access and repeated opportunities over time. We also need strong regional markets and organisations capable of planning beyond one grant, sponsor or annual event.” 

Beyond education, funding, and logistical support, galleries also help sustain artists’ careers. 

Gallery Director at Southern Guild, Lindsey Raymond, sees the relationship between galleries and artists as a business partnership rather than an employer-employee relationship. She says, “A gallery can provide the strategic, financial, and operational infrastructure that supports artists, so they feel less alone in navigating their careers.”

Recognising the limited number of galleries available to artists, Latitudes takes a more horizontal, or ‘latitudinal’ approach to the art sector, placing independent artists alongside galleries, curators, studios and nonprofit organisations on its online platform. As Lucy explains, “this does not diminish the role of galleries, but recognises that there are simply not enough galleries to represent the number of artists seeking routes into the market.”

Image courtesy of Usha Seejarim, 2026. Credit: Erin Brady for Dan Bradica Studio & Southern Guild.

Latitudes’ efforts to create more opportunities for artists are reflected in its online platform, art fair, educational programmes, awards and partnerships.

Visibility vs Viability 

Visibility can help artists build relationships with art institutions, secure exhibition opportunities and attract collectors, but it can also come with pressure to maintain relevance.

Lindsey highlights the growing expectation for artists to become more market-oriented, respond to trends, anticipate demand and produce work that speaks to current socio-political or cultural moments. As she explains, there is “enormous pressure to remain visible and ‘relevant’ within this attention economy”. This can make it hard for artists to balance what the market wants with the ideas and materials that truly inspire their work.

Image courtesy of Southern Guild, Kanye Nawe Opening, 2026. Credit: Jesse Jewelz & Southern Guild.

“Awards, peer recognition, invitations to exhibitions, press, and institutional support can all contribute to a sense of career progression, but don't necessarily translate into financial stability or personal development,” she adds. The time artists need to research, experiment and develop their practice must also generate income, but this is not always the reality. 

Andani Africa’s Visual Arts in Numbers research found that 45% of artists spend more on their practice than they earn, while the median artist income is just R30,000 a year. 

The numbers reflect the gap between the growing visibility of African art and the economic realities of viable artistic careers. Addressing this gap requires looking beyond visibility alone and considering how different parts of the creative network can work together to build more sustainable creative industries.

Cross-sector Collaboration

Latitudes' partnership with Fak'ugesi African Digital and Innovation Festival, which returns to Braamfontein from October 13–17, is an example of how collaboration across sectors can help address the gap between visibility and real support for artists.

Through Imagination Needs Infrastructure, an installation at this year’s festival, Latitudes explores the networks that allow art to be made, seen, collected and sustained, including the people, platforms, funding, knowledge, audiences and opportunities behind it.

Aligned with Fak’ugesi’s African Imaginaries theme, the installation invites visitors to reflect on what the African art sector needs next and how they can help shape its future.

Latitudes Online's booth, Imagination Needs Infrastructure at Fak'ugasi African Digital and Innovation Festival.

Mapping and Building Networks

At the centre of the installation is Build the Network, an interactive feature that highlights how people can facilitate networks, knowledge sharing, and greater access.

As Malaika explains, “For us, building the network is really about sharing those resources, connecting artists with audiences, collectors with new work, and people with the knowledge and confidence to participate more meaningfully in the art world.”

“‘Build the Network’ turns the question toward the visitor: what would you like to contribute or how would you like to collaborate? We would love conversations at Fak’ugesi to become lasting relationships, and relationships to become shared opportunities,” Lucy adds.

Efforts to strengthen the sector also include mapping the resources and practitioners already within it, which helps show where support is needed and how people can work together. 

Photo courtesy of Fak'ugesi.

Other initiatives are also working to address gaps in the sector. VACSA’s Visual Arts Map documents South Africa’s visual arts sector, including artists, galleries, organisations and other practitioners. By building a clearer picture of the sector, the initiative aims to inform advocacy, planning, partnerships and funding, while identifying gaps in support.

Creating a more prosperous African art sector will not only lead to more artists being discovered, but also allow them to develop their practices and make a sustainable living. In other words, increased visibility must translate into real, long-term opportunities for artists, made possible by improved support systems, reliable funding, and networks that help artists advance their work. This requires more than one institution; artists, curators, galleries, museums, collectors, educators, and government agencies all have a role to play in building the ecosystem together.

What can each of us do to help build this network?