This year, as part of the ACT | UJ Conference programme,
BASA Hatchery Breakaways is set to offer a strong interactive and engaging
element at the two-day learning experience.
“We are delighted yet again to be partnering in the annual
ACT UJ Conference. This year BASA is proud to present the Hatchery Session.
We believe that this session will provide opportunities for learning and
sharing staying true to our vision in creating sustainable and equitable relationships
between business and the arts,” says Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and
Arts South Africa (BASA).
Prior to the start of the #creativeintersections conference,
which will be presented at the UJ Arts Centre on March 16 and 17, attendees have
the opportunity to form a group and arrive at the conference with an idea,
solution and/or a working collaboration that could extend beyond the
conference.
Delegates will form smaller groups during the brainstorming
breakaways which will be presented in three follow-on sessions, collectively
totalling three hours. Groups may be as large as participants wish but should
not consist of fewer than four members. Concepts can take any form but they
must combine disciplines. While having a pre-planned group is encouraged,
delegates who do not have a pre-conceived concept or formed collective will be
placed in a group during the conference.
“One of the incredibly valuable aspects of these sessions is
that groups will have access to ‘connectors’. This is a group of specialists
from a range of industries that will be available to offer groups input in the
process of conceptualising innovative projects or solutions,” says Pieter
Jacobs, CEO of the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT).
“Connectors will include specialists from inside and outside
the creative industries, including IT engineers, scientists, legal, business
and finance experts, as well as architects and researchers working in the field
of interdisciplinarity,” he adds.
Among the ‘connectors’ is marketing guru Michael Rubenstein,
multi-disciplinary artist Willemijn Schellekens, architect and gallerist Jandre
Pieters and serial entrepreneur Abed Tau, together with legal experts from
Adams & Adams.
During the BASA Hatchery Breakaways participants will gain
practical experience building a project and working as a collective, leaving
the session with a personalised project proposal and a signed agreement among
group members.
Groups will receive an ideas generator kit to help stimulate
conversation and spark ideas; a standard project proposal template; and a basic
contract.
During the Pitch Perfect ‘battle’ session at the conference,
a representative of delegate groups will have the opportunity to pitch their
idea, permitted it aligns with the criteria of an implementation grant made
available by the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT). Interdisciplinary projects or
solutions of which phase one could be implemented with a grant of R80,000, and
within a 12-month period, will be invited to present a 3-minute pitch to an
adjudication panel.
BASA Hatchery Breakaway groups are not limited to these
grant criteria and are free to devise projects or solutions of any scale, but
would not be eligible to pitch for these grants should it not comply with the
criteria.
Six projects will be identified and announced after the
conference. The shortlisted projects will be invited to take the second step in
the process of acquiring support or investment, and will have the opportunity
to do a 10-minute project presentation to the panel of adjudicators at the
first post-conference Creatives in
Conversation session on March 30, 2016.
The six shortlisted projects will receive professional
guidance through an incubation programme, sponsored by the Kingdom of the
Netherlands and implemented by the Cultural Development Trust. This platform
will offer support in the form of contact sessions with a list of varying
mentors, and help sustain and aid the successful transformation of each idea
into reality.
The ACT | UJ Arts & Culture Conference is presented by
the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) and UJ Arts & Culture in partnership
with the Department of Arts & Culture’s Mzansi Golden Economy Programme,
Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) and the SAMRO Foundation, with support
from the National Arts Council, Nedbank Arts Affinity, Creative Feel Magazine
and the British Council’s Connect ZA programme.
For more information on the conference click on the advert
to the right of this article.
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