Deadline:
May 31, 2014
The Tshwane University of Technology’s
Faculty of the Arts will host the third edition of its series of international
conferences on arts and culture from October 1 to 3, 2014, at its Arts Campus.
The proposed theme of the conference is Strategic repositioning of Arts, Culture and
Heritage in the 21st Century. Interested parties can submit abstracts (300
words in PDF/MS Word format) to the Conference Secretariat by May 31, 2014.
This conference is a timely response and
intervention into very pertinent and cutting-edge government-driven policy
issues, such as the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, the Charter for
Humanities and Social Science and the National Development Plan: Vision for
2030.
“We recognise the vigorous debates around
these policy issues,” says Professor Ndwamato George Mugovhani, Head of the
Department of Performing Arts, and Conference Chair. “The conference has
identified the ‘silence’ with regards to arts, culture and heritage in most
published development plans in the country, on the African continent and
globally, and therefore aims to interrogate this curious ‘silence’.” It is
envisaged to bring a wide array of local and international academics and
bureaucrats in the arts, cultural policy and planning spheres together. In
addition, it will be graced by the presence of internationally renowned keynote
speakers whose expertise, knowledge and experience are relevant to the topical
issues of the conference.
While the conference is primarily informed
by South Africa’s various policy papers, local and international academics/arts
practitioners/industry members and policy makers are invited to contribute
their own experiences in the context of the given theme and sub-themes.
Keynote speakers confirmed to date are
Professor Nhlanhla Maake, Research Fellow at University of South Africa,
freelance writer and member at Ekaam Books CC; and Ben Cameron, Art Director at
the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York.
Papers, plenary panel sessions, posters and
workshops based on the following themes and sub-themes, to name a few, are
invited: Creative industries and social development/nation building/economic
development; Culture and development; Cultural policy and development; Entrepreneurship
and creative industries; Arts and rural development; Africanisation of
curricula; Arts and urban regeneration; Arts, culture, heritage and national
development; Arts in identity of multicultural politics; Arts and climate
change; Humanities and social sciences as a repository of heritage, history,
memory and meaning; Humanities and social sciences in political economy and
internationalism; Arts and children; Role of government in the promotion of
cultural and creative industries; Significance of partnerships between
institutions of higher learning and cultural and creative industries in the
expansion of career skills and knowledge; Challenges around culture, heritage
and moral regeneration in modern societies; and Commercialisation and
preservation of intellectual property in the arts, culture and heritage,
cultural planning and urban tourism.
For more information, e-mail artsconference2014@tut.ac.za or botesjc@tut.ac.za or visit www.tut.ac.za