Thandeka Sibiya

Creative Arts is one of the subjects offered under the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) in both South Africa’s public and private schools. The curriculum is believed to have the capacity to empower learners to express knowledge, skills, and values worth learning. It aims to ensure that learners acquire and apply knowledge and skills in ways that are meaningfully relevant to their own contexts, as well as being sensitive to global imperatives. Over and above these general gains, individual subjects such as Creative Arts, provides exposure to and study of a range of art forms including dance, drama, music, and visual arts (including design and crafts) from Grade R to Grade 9. The main purpose of the subject is to develop learners as creative, imaginative individuals who appreciate the arts and who have the basic knowledge and skills to participate in arts activities and to prepare them for possible further study in the art forms of their choice in Further Education and Training (FET). Evidence demonstrates that economies world over significantly requires tools to support, develop and sustain them. These tools can range from simple resources such as imagination, which may be the means of developing plans for the future, it may be used in solving problems, or it may be a mere internal play, a substitute for facing the realities of life. The most practical utilisation of imagination is in the formulation of ambitions and ideals. The concept of imagination is deemed significantly crucial for conceiving invention, economic benefits, scientific discoveries, technology upgrading, preferable management, employment opportunities, and balanced society, as depicted in various literature. It is in this light that we find imagination, art and creativity intrinsically connected. However, the teaching of Creative Arts appears not to be aligned with the idea of utilizing imagination to bolster creativity, because of various gaps that exist in the Department of Basic Education and schools. This qualitative study, premised in the constructivist and interpretivist paradigms, aims to investigate the role of Creative Arts in creating rural and township economies, and in keeping them alive. The study will make use of open-ended face to face interviews