WE HAVE been celebrating Africa Month in May, and you will notice a distinctly African flavour to this month’s South African Cultural Observatory newsletter. Additionally, we got to praise – and criticize – the creative economy on the continent and the incredible work being done both in South Africa and across Africa at our inaugural Counting Culture 2016 conference in Port Elizabeth this month.
IT TOOK two days of intense dialogue, debate, delving deep and engagement, but in many ways the tone for a new view of the creative and cultural industries in South Africa was set by academics, thinkers, creatives and practioners – who, unusually, came together to talk ‘counting culture’.
THE SOUTH African Cultural Observatory (SACO) is committed to developing talented young researchers interested in pursuing a post-graduate degree related to arts, culture, research or statistics in an effort to grow the sector’s research base in alignment with the SACO Research Agenda.
LEADING WOMEN in the arts and culture sector have praised the inaugural South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) national conference, held in Port Elizabeth on 16 and 17 May, for the diverse set of speakers and practical narratives shared at the event.
GHANA: THE GHANAIAN Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts recently held a workshop to share the rationale of the new Creative Arts Bill, which if passed will be called the Creative Industry Scheme, with stakeholders.
THE LITERATURE Advisory Panel of the National Arts Council is hereby inviting applications from independent South African publishing houses and publishers for its special grant in the attempt to redress scarcity of leisure books in African languages.
STATSSA RECENTLY, in May, released the results of an interesting mapping study which looks at the lasting geo-spatial legacy of apartheid and the patterns of racial neighbourhood integration and segregation across South Africa’s largest cities.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has committed itself to playing 90% local music across the 18 radio stations as from 12 May 2016. This follows extensive and successful engagements with some music representatives.
OVER THE two day-long inaugural South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) national conference insights were shared and a confluence of ideas, methodologies and case studies achieved as speakers and delegates mulled over ‘Counting Culture’, the conference theme.
AN IMPRESSIVE line-up of international experts will contribute key academic, creative and economic insights and findings at the South African Cultural Observatory’s (SACO) first national conference in Port Elizabeth from Monday, 16 to Tuesday, 17 May.
TWENTY YEARS ago in this very house, on the 8th May 1996, with great excitement and pride, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was adopted. This momentous occasion ushered in a new era where: “Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedom.
A STRONG regional flavour is anticipated at the first ever South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) national conference, next week, driven by universities from across the Eastern Cape. The SACO is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) on behalf of the Department of Arts & Culture (DAC), and the conference will take place in Port Elizabeth from Monday, 16 to Tuesday, 17 May.
