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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.

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 (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.

The Music In Africa Foundation (MIAF) and Goethe-Institut will host an online round-table discussion on 18 February from 11am to 11.45am CAT.

The Observatory was established to undertake economic research for and about the cultural and creative industries in SA. Additionally we have done research on other related sectors that impact the cultural industries.

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions most industry events and activities have either been cancelled or largely held online since April 2020.

The Cape Town-based artist, Andrea du Plessis (40) has been announced as the winner of the 2021 Sasol New Signatures Art Competition.

As we publish this edition of the Cultural Observer, most of the West has placed South Africa in the travel red list owing to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 identified by the South African scientists.