After close to seven years, National
Arts Festival’s Artistic Director, Rucera Seethal, is stepping down from
the role to take up a new position.
Rucera Seethal comments: “It's been an absolute honour working with the Festival team, a group of people who bring everything they have and more, not only during Festival but every day, to keep the organisation and programme together and moving forward. When I joined the Festival, I came from previous work focusing on international and continental exchange. My tenure at the Festival has enabled a deeper engagement with the vast South African arts landscape, we have so much inspiration, hope, creative solutions to contribute to our fast-evolving world. Wherever I am placed, I wish to continue contributing in this direction."
Rucera’s time at the Festival was also marked by a period of transition as Covid, and the years post-Covid, significantly changed the arts landscape. The Festival’s programme has been consolidated and continues to be increasingly representative of multiple languages, storytelling forms and experimentation. Rucera has worked with the National Arts Festival’s Artistic Committee to steer work that explores the intersection of creativity and technology, the intersectionality of genres and broader International exchange.
After she leaves the National Arts Festival, Rucera will co-convene the Watch & Talk programme at Theatre Festival Basel before taking up a position with the Irish government, building a programme of creative exchange and collaboration between Ireland and Southern Africa in the coming years.
National Arts Festival CEO, Palesa Kadi says: “While I’m sorry Rucera will not be working with us, we sincerely appreciate her contribution to the programmatic arc of the festival these past seven editions. I’m quite sure her work with the Irish will also bring us into contact quite frequently and it’s reassuring that we have such an experienced cultural professional in her new role - it’s a positive signal for the arts in Southern Africa.”
For more information on the festival, visit https://nationalartsfestival.co.za/
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