News Listing

In this edition we highlight key findings from our recent reports. The reports are: a chapter from the Mapping Study that gives the provincial profile of the cultural and creative industry and the South African’s Animation Industry: Ecosystem Analysis.

Absa has opened a new art gallery in the piazza of Towers Main in Johannesburg central business district as of May 2022. The Absa Art Gallery officially opened its doors with the first exhibition titled Voices: Past and Present.

I am hopeful that as you read this edition of The Cultural Observer you are warm as this winter has been very chilly, with temperatures plummeting to close to zero degrees in some parts of the country.

The award-winning actor and director James Ngcobo has joined Joburg City Theatres (JCT) as an artistic director. Ngcobo who was with the Market Theatre Foundation for nine years joins the JCT as of July 1 and will be responsible for developing and implementing an artistic vision for organisation’s 10 spaces.

As you read this the final cultural shows of National Arts Festival are possibly on stage in Makhanda. The National Arts Festival came back in a face-to-face format for the first time in two years.

Nkosinathi Innocent Maphumulo, popularly known as Black Coffee made South Africa proud once more with winning a Grammy Award at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards Ceremony organised by the United States National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

On Thursday, 31 March the South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) released its much- awaited CCI Mapping Study to the media and industry at an event in Newtown, Johannesburg.

The South African Cultural Observatory was established to undertake economic research for the cultural and creative industries in South Africa. The kind research we conduct provides such information as to the economic size of the sector, number of jobs in the sector or transformation. We publish the reports on our website and in various media platforms, including this newsletter, with a view to empower industry stakeholders with information that we hope they will find useful, informative and can be relied upon when making decisions that affect the sector.

The Apartheid Museum has reopened its doors to the public and is encouraging as many people to visit and tour the facility. The museum closed its doors in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This edition of The Cultural Observer is published during an interesting but complex international environment. While on the positive side the world has seen Covid-19 infections numbers subside, we are witnessing a war that has a devasting impact to the world economy.

The South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) is undertaking a 2nd round of research (an initial study was conducted in 2020) to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure better preparedness in the future and to use the information to assess how sports-related businesses are responding to the current crisis. In this context, all formal and informal businesses, organisations, trainers, coaches, etc. involved in and/ or earning an income in the sports sector and related activities are invited to complete this survey.

Wednesday, 9 March 2022, saw another “Australia Speaks” lecture take place at the National Museum of Australia. The lecture was carried out in the form of a discussion, where Australian audiences were offered the opportunity to engage with big, bold ideas about the future of their country. The lecture sought to come up with ways to develop and support keen audiences across the country, and nurture our creative voices and arts and culture more broadly.