REGISTRATIONS FOR ACT | UJ CONFERENCE

In an unprecedented gathering of the country’s creative minds, the inaugural ACT/UJ Arts & Culture Conference taking place at the University of Johannesburg’s Kingsway campus on May 24 and 25, should be on everyone’s agenda for those directly or indirectly involved with the arts in South Africa.

The two-day event, entitled The Art of the Creative Economy, brings together a formidable line-up of speakers. They represent national role-players, arts practitioners and administrators, cultural activists, arts organisations, major funding and development agencies, leading academics and maverick futurists in one forum to explore the landscape of the country’s creative arts sector. They will discuss and debate the plans and policies aimed at stimulating it, to learn from commercial successes and to be challenged and tantalised by visions of the future and what this could hold for the sector.

Seven themed sessions over the two days provide a platform for discussion and interrogation of the key issues affecting the sector generally. The sessions will also address specifically the many genres within the sector, including theatre, dance, music, literature, film, arts journalism, visual arts, craft and heritage and are presented by leading lights within these fields. Dialogue between speakers and delegates will be facilitated through what promises to be very lively panel discussions and Q&As at the end of each session.

The State of the Nation - the opening session, addresses national plans and policies, an update on the Mzansi’s Golden Economy strategy and National Planning Commission’s plans for the sector while also offering a continental perspective. Andre le Roux, SAMRO’s Foundation General Manager and previous Chairman of the South African Coalition for Cultural Diversity (SACCD), will chair the opening session.

Insights and research into The Landscape of the Creative Economy will be shared by notable creative consultant, Avril Joffe and BASA’s Michelle Constant, who will present key findings from the recent Artstrack research and hot-off-the-press UNESCO research. Also hitting the headlines is the Civil Society’s quadrennial report on the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity. Extracts of the report will be presented by Andre le Roux and Mhlanganisi Masoga. UJ Art Curator, Annali Dempsey will explore the disconnect between policy and reality in the visual arts arena. The session ends with our great icon, Dr Mongane Wally Serote, talking on the imperative of preserving South Africa’s arts and cultural heritage in the context of charting a new 21st century cultural identity. Dr Serote will also chair this session and discussion.

National Arts Festival Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed, will chair The State of the Sectors, with presentations by Erica Elk (Craft), Mpho Molepo and Themi Venturas (Theatre), Jay Pather (Dance), Prof Andries Oliphant (Literature), Sipho Sithole (Music), DAC’s Lindi Ndebele-Koka (Visual Arts), NFVF’s Aifheli Makhwanya (Film) and Mary Corrigall (Arts Journalism).

In a veritable coup, the session Funding – Facts, Figures, Future brings together major funders of the arts – Katharina von Ruckteshell-Katte of the Goethe Institute but here representing the EUNIC members, newly-appointed National Arts Council CEO Monica Newton, Sershan Naidoo of the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund, Tshikululu’s Janet Watts, Pieter Jacobs of the Arts & Culture Trust, Standard Bank’s Mandie van der Spuy and Nedbank’s Maseda Ratshikuni. Author of the Arterial Network’s Funding Toolkit, Avril Joffe, will chair this key session.

A session set to stretch thinking if not blow minds, An Inspired, Wired Creative Economy sees maverick creative thinker and leading business consultant Mike Freedman of Freedthinkers addressing, amongst others, city regions, not countries, as creators of national economies. Rhodes University’s Prof Harry Dugmore sets future scenarios and scenario planning for the arts; with long-time arts thought leader, Groccott’s Mail’s Steven Kromberg looking into wired world, the digital frontier and what this means for the arts.

Art for Art, Art for Audiences, Art for Sponsors chaired by doyenne of arts journalism in South Africa, Adrienne Sichel, explores some inspiring commercial success stories and the complexities of managing that tenuous tripartite relationship of artist, audience and sponsor. Presenters are Mfundi Vundla (Executive Director Morula Pictures), Deon Opperman (Packed House Productions), and Brett Pyper (KKNK).

Harnessing key conference findings and ensuring continuity, The Way Forward, is an interactive floor session facilitated by Avril Joffe, Ismail Mahomed and Monica Newton. Key arts networks and organisations will be encouraged to introduce their organisations to delegates and options will be tabled for improving information flow between the genres, and for the sector finding a channel to champion its cause with a common voice to ensure its increased economic participation, recognition and support.

The conference offers delegates a host of value-adds including a cocktail/networking session, a visit to the Gerard de Leeuw Centenary exhibition at the UJ Art Gallery, free tickets to attend the production Forbidden Broadway on the evening of May 24 and various ground-breaking publications on creative economy issues kindly provided by The British Council and the Spanish Embassy.

Registration for the conference closes on May 18 and representatives of arts organisations, funding agencies and corporate sponsors of the arts, city and provincial officials with arts and culture in their portfolios, theatre managers and arts practitioners across all genres are urged to book promptly to ensure that they don’t miss this important sector event. Visit www.act.org.za for all information and booking.