Following the highly successful ACT | UJ Arts & Culture
Conference held in Johannesburg in March, eight regional post-conference
seminars will take place around the country between late April and early May
2016.
These run-off seminars have been devised by sponsored
conference delegates, who will share the knowledge they learnt in Johannesburg
with their peers in their respective province’s art circles. Out of the 453 applications
for sponsored passes to the #creativeintersections-themed conference, 55 were backed
by the Department of Arts & Culture through the Mzansi Golden Economy
programme.Of these delegates, 32 were from outside of Gauteng, and are currently
in the process of organising their regional seminars.
"ACT is grateful for the Department of Arts &
Culture's support through the Mzansi Golden Economy programme, which ensures
that the information, research, knowledge and free resources that came out of the
#creativeintersections conference reach artists and practitioners across the
country, who were unable to attend the conference," says ACT CEO Pieter
Jacobs.
Each provincial group consists of between two and four
delegates, who have been tasked with brainstorming and collectively presenting
an interpretation of the #creativeintersections conference in a way that is
relevant and meaningful to their province’s needs. "This opportunity
upholds the aims of the conference to share information, knowledge, and
research with the view of enabling, advancing and inspiring the creative sector
across all provincial boundaries," explains conference Project
Manager, Anastasia Pather.
The seminars will take an assortment of forms;
community-based group discussions, panel discussions, brainstorming sessions,
networking events, performances, and workshops. Many of these formats have been
directly inspired by the proceedings of the Creative Conference. Ofentse
Tapile, the group representative of the North West faction says their event
will be a “mini replica of the #creativeintersections conference”. Tapile
explains that, like the Creative Conference, their seminar will include keynote
addresses, educational workshops, entertainment and the inclusion of arts
administrations from the province. “The reason we invited arts organisations
from around the area is for relevance purposes, as they also need to have
representatives voicing their opinions, explaining who they are, and what they can
do for the locals,” Tapile explains.
In Limpopo a networking session will round off the seminar,
which group member Kagiso Kekana says will include a panel discussion by key
players in the province’s industry, talks on interdisciplinary, preservation of
the arts and the building of partnerships.
The BASA Hatchery Sessions are the inspiration behind
Mpumalanga’s post-conference seminar. Group member Ayanda Nkosi says they hope
to “unify and solidify the local arts sector in a way that is going to spread
information, skills and ideas in a way that will benefit and empower the
delegates to work together to formalise their talents as businesses”.
Community-based discussions will form the premise of the
Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal seminars. Each will
pin-point local opportunities, highlight the artistic work being done in the
area and encourage further collaboration based on the #creativeintersections
theme.
“We hope to address and highlight the many community-based
projects that are active in the Eastern Cape in an attempt to uplift, upskill
and empower our communities,” says Eastern Cape representative Anva Chiazzari.
These sentiments are echoed across the manifestos from each
province; using the tools and information they gathered at the ACT | UJ Arts &
Culture Conference, they hope to galvanize their local creative communities and
bring about action and empowerment through a variety of #creativeintersections.
All regional seminars are open to any interested parties,
including new creative mediums outside the traditional arts and culture
disciplines. Entrance is free. For details on each event, including times and
venues, visit www.creativeconference.co.za
The 2016 ACT | UJ Arts
& Culture Conference, which took place at the UJ Arts Centre at the
University of Johannesburg in March, 2016, was presented by the Arts &
Culture Trust (ACT) and UJ Arts & Culture, in partnership with the
Department of Arts and Culture’s Mzansi Golden Economy Programme, Business and
Arts South Africa (BASA) and SAMRO Foundation with support from the NAC,
Nedbank Arts Affinity, and Creative Feel Magazine.
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