#CreativeUprising,
the 5th ACT | UJ Creative Conference will engage with South African Art
Education in its current state and possible future.
This
iteration of the conference is about unlearning and rethinking how we do things
and present things. From curating a conference to how we talk about art
education in South Africa, the aim of ACT | UJ Conference has been to share
knowledge with the view of enabling, advancing and inspiring creative South Africa.
“There
are many conferences and symposiums this year that are investigating art
education. We see this as an indication that this content is pertinent to our
industry and that we are in a position to add to this conversation,” shares
Anastasia Pather, the conference Project Manager. “The conference is not about
repetition or making bold claims. We will be recapping and reporting on
previous conferences like NEPAD and ASSITEJ with the view to give our delegates
a refresher on what has already been discussed so they can share that
information in their networks and establish how they can progress those ideas
further.”
To
ensure there is no ranking of content, each engagement has been carefully
curated and is equally valuable and as such the conference will have no keynote
speakers. The conference organisers feel that there is no room for hierarchy
when talking about modernising colonial knowledge systems with an aim for it to
be appropriate and inclusive to all its users. Instead, #CreativeUprising will
be presented by Ashraf Jamal, Puleng Plessie, David Andrew, Alison Kearney,
Thuli Gamedze, Nike Romano, Prof Mzob Mboya, and Motsumi Makhene, among a list
of art education specialists, thought provocateurs and industry leaders.
“The
conference is not about the customary PowerPoint or lengthy panel discussions,
it is about Art Education which comes in many shapes and forms,” Pather
imparts. “Art Education happens in a classroom, in a community centre, on the
street, in a book, on the stage, in a protest, on museum walls, and through
people. “CreativeUprising is a creative conference about capturing the evolving
and stimulating nature of Art Education. We have paired academics and educators
with performance artists so their arguments have the room to jump off the screen
and live on our stage and that delegates are not left with small fonts and
bullet points to try and decipher,” she elucidates.
Pather
continued that the conference would not dedicate resources and time to
artisanal lunches and elaborate conference printouts. Resources will be
employed to facilitate engaging presentations and keeping the ticket price
affordable. In addition to this, the needs of the participants have been taken
into account, especially in lieu of the timing. Understanding that students and
educators would not be able to take two full days off, they have structured the
programme to make it feasible for delegates to attend selected presentations,
attend between classes or after school.
Full
conference passes will be are available for R300, while those attending only
selected presentations purchase the R150 pass. Student prices will be half of
that and there is an option to purchase lunch at R60 per day. Alternatively,
delegates are welcome to pack their own lunch. “This conference is about
contributing to the betterment of Art Education and not about bells, whistles
or profit,” explains Pather.
The
#CreativeUprising will focus on providing a platform for students and educators
to talk about how Art Education needs to change and how to achieve it.
Workshops in visual literacy, learning STEM subjects through the arts and
entrepreneurial skills will be offered at the conference. “We want to stimulate
conversation so that educators can collaborate with art centres and artists
already changing the face of art education to refresh what we teach and how we
teach,” Pather shares. Through the presentation of performance art as an
educational tool, and presenting a case for Shakespeare’s Macbeth in Xhosa and sign language to be used to discuss ethical
African leadership, this will be a visually stimulating, interactive and
provocative offering.
“Questions
need to be asked about whether art curriculums should include basic
entrepreneurial skills to empower artists and graduates after school and
students and educators should have equal opportunity to contribute to the
discourse in order for it to hold a sustainable relevance for its future
users,” says Pather.
The
conference will offer a platform to collect input and offer a place for
delegates to ask questions and get answers from various role players such as
the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Arts & Culture. The
goal is for decision makers, students, art educators and professional creatives
to be in the same room to envisage a workable plan for the future.
#CreativeUprising
will take place at the UJ Arts Centre on their Kingsway campus from July 27 to 28
and is for educators looking to expand their practice, art educators from
formal and non-formal institutions and centres, academics and art learners.
The 2017
ACT | UJ Creative Conference is presented by the Arts & Culture Trust and
UJ Arts & Culture in partnership with SAMRO Foundation and Drama for Life.
For more
information visit www.act.org.za
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