From Edinburgh to Mumbai, Cologne to Kampala, the growth in number and scale of arts festivals  indicates a global shift to reclaim the means of cultural production. This heightened awareness of celebrating and promoting local creativity gives societies an opportunity to redefine urban identities, form new communities, and express and share their unique individual and collective narratives.

In David Binder’s lively TED talk, the Tony Award-winning Broadway producer argues that there is a new generation of arts festivals that can radically transform cities and communities: “Arts festivals promote diversity, they bring neighbors into dialogue, they increase creativity, they offer opportunities for civic pride, they improve our general psychological well-being. In short, they make cities better places to live.”

Faisal Kiwewa, founder and current director of Bayimba Cultural Foundation, which hosts the Bayimba Festival in Kampala, Uganda agrees: “Traditionally, festivals centre on and celebrate some unique aspect of the community and offer a sense of belonging for religious, social, cultural or geographical groups. In the past times, festivals were organised to mark significant occasions in history or seasonal changes. They were times where elders shared stories and transferred knowledge to the next generation. Festivals in modern times still serve to inform communities about their culture, their traditions. They are an important element in cultural development: they foster unity, social cohesion and promote diversity and mutual understanding.”

These new generation festivals have three distinct characteristics:

• Creating and promoting dialogue between the local and the global
• Encouraging participation from the audience beyond just being passive spectators
• Showcasing work than recognises that imagination can’t be contained in buildings

Two recent international festivals were Art Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Kala Ghoda in South Mumbai, India.

As part of the Southern Guild Collection, local illustrator and designer Atang Tshikare of Zabalaza exhibited at Design Days Dubai at Art Dubai in March. His personal experience highlights the importance of the dialogue between the local and the global: “This experience has given me new hope and vision of what my work was about. The Italians’ work was clearly Italian; the French work was really French and then looking at our work I realised that it was really South African. Young people are creating a new culture and a new visual tradition. I started to understand how unique we are as a people. It was a pleasure to be seen as more than just a mere third world African asking for a hand-out. We represented a new beginning. An art force to be reckoned with!”

Not only did the experience cast a new light on South African aesthetics for Atang but also on his own work: “During one of the buyers’ day, literally five minutes before the graffiti bench was sold, I had a quiet moment where I noticed for the first time the passion and feeling, the representation of not only my idea but myself, my own experience that had made the work look so good.”

Delegates from The Fringe, Cape Town’s design and innovation district, visited Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (KGAF) in Mumbai during February. KGAF is a free community celebration of the arts in a historic precinct of Mumbai which shares the same name, and is now enjoying its 15th year as an event. Brinda Miller, director of Kala Ghoda festival, shared some learnings on what it takes to engage the public and curate meaningful programming that speaks to the audience and the location. 

Brinda firmly believes the programming and experiences must be accessible: “We try to do different things, and mix it up. There’s a lot of non-serious art. We don’t pretend that it’s anything serious. Anybody who asks me, or even says, ‘Well, you know a lot of the things on the street aren’t that great,’ I say, ‘People enjoy it.’ This is more for them, and they never get to see such things. There’s no public art in Mumbai. This is the only chance.”

The festival draws over 150 000 people to 350 different events over the course of nine days. With 11 different categories ranging from literature to visual art to dance, the festival embraces the use of public spaces and historic buildings that people might not otherwise access.

Brinda explains KGAF’s curatorial process, acknowledging that a legacy of a decade and a half helps when crowdsourcing creative producers who offer their time and productions for free. “Kala Ghoda has actually reached a stage where people actually contact us. We encourage them to make the installations interactive. It should be something that you can sit in, touch, feel, do something with it. It shouldn’t be something you just look at and say, ‘Oh, it’s beautiful.’ It’s a way to reach out and show people a little bit of culture and a little bit of heritage.”

Beyond the social impact 

While the assessment of the economic impact of arts festivals in South Africa is still a novelty, a recent study on the economic impact of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival – South Africa’s longest running arts festival – shows that the festival generates R13.5-million in direct gross geographic product (GGP) and R29.7-million in direct economic output. Looking at the effect when applying the multiplier approach in a social accounting matrix (which also includes the indirect and induced economic contribution) the festival is estimated to generate a potential R34.7-million in GGP and R82.4-million in economic output for the Eastern Cape economy.

Beyond just their socio-cultural impact, festivals have economic value. Investment by government and the private sector is not just promoting art for art’s sake, but can generate real revenue as well as create jobs.

What can you do? 

Show up: Be sure to support productions, performances and exhibitions (and not only during art festivals). Audiences are increasingly encouraged to be more than passive spectators, making us all active participants in our community’s cultural life. By buying a ticket you’re also making a contribution to the economy.

Create: While opportunities like Infecting the City and Creative Week – during which you are actively invited to express yourself in public space – only happen once a year, performance in a public space can be as simple as a game of jump-rope in the park. Public art is too important in our cultural and community life only to be practiced during festivals and specially ordained weeks. Express yourself, and make space for the people around you to do the same.

Share: In the connected world we live in, it is almost second nature to share great experiences with our own networks. By promoting, sharing and publicly celebrating the arts, a critical mass is formed that helps sustain creative production. Cultural democracy can only be achieved through a vibrant and active cultural landscape.

Dare to discover: According to David Binder, art can reveal a fresh view of the world: “Artists are explorers; who better to show us the city anew? Artists can take us to far-flung parts of the city that we haven’t explored or they can take us into that building that we pass every day and we never went into. Artists can show us people that we might overlook in our lives.”

Discover more 

• Browse through an album of the best of 2012 Creative Week
• Watch the dynamic scene at this year’s Kala Ghoda festival, and check out images from The Fringe’s visit
• Listen to David Binder on the arts festival revolution
• Learn more about what makes for a well-run arts festival
• Support the Grahamstown National Arts Festival

Sources: The significance of festivals to regional economies: measuring the economic value of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in South Africa by Melville Saayman and Riaan Rossouw. Tourism Economics, 2011, 17 (3)

Contribution of arts festivals and events to national and regional economies – the Bayimba Festivals by Faisal Kiwewa

Text: Alma Viviers in collaboration with Caroline Jordan

Images: Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2013 by Lisa Burnell

City Hall Sessions will be back on Saturday 27 April, with a Freedom Day special headlined by Paul Hanmer, McCoy Mrubata and Moreira Chonguica. All three have a special relationship with the Mother City: Hanmer and Mrubata were born here while Maputo-born Chonguica studied at UCT’s College of Music.

Amaryoni – a five piece vocal group new to Cape Town audiences – will also perform. Their style ranges from mbube to isicathamiya, and repertoire includes South African classics.

City Hall Sessions series is a project of Creative Cape Town, a programme of Cape Town Partnership, and is supported by the National Lottery Development Trust Fund, with assistance of the City of Cape Town. The series commenced in 2011, and has brought a dynamic and diverse range of musical collaborations to Cape Town’s City Hall. Artists featured to date include Ray Lema, Chico César, Thandiswa Mazwai, Ismaël Lô, Azania Ghetto Sounds, Kesivan & The Lights, Closet Snare, Caiphus Semenya, Madala Kunene, and a host of special guests.

• What: City Hall Sessions Freedom Day Concert
• When: Saturday 27 April 2013 at 20h00
• Who: Featuring Paul Hanmer, McCoy Mrubata, Moreira Chonguica and Amaryoni
• How: Tickets are available through Computicket from Tuesday 16 April.

Image: McCoy Mrubata by Steve Gordon

Several performances during the recent Infecting the City public arts festival, which took place from 12 to 16 March 2013, used music and sound to create arresting or unusual city experiences. Here’s just a taste.

Tshikona flash 

For the 2013 Infecting the City, Pedro Espi-Sanchis – a well-known musician, performer, teacher and storyteller – orchestrated a flashmob of musical performers on Thibault Square that had even serious businessmen tapping their shoes to the rhythm.

Here’s how it goes: Several construction workers take up tools, start working and quickly fall into rhythm, with a spade in wet gravel, hammers and steel bars turning into instruments; before long they break out into a gumboot dance. After a lively performance, they take sips from cooldrinks bottles which become improvised flutes. The group is joined by other cooldrink-bottle flute players from the crowd. More people in the crowd take out black PVC pipes and start joining in, each playing a single note. The performers hand out similar pipes to willing audience members who are encouraged to follow their lead. A crescendo is reached as the whole crowd jumps and dances to the music. As suddenly as the music started, it stops, and the crowd disperses again.

The construction workers were played by a group of gumboot dancers from Delft, and they were joined by dancers from the Likhwezi youth group dancers of Nyanga. The pipe flutists consisted of student from Vega whom Pedro trained to be part of the performance.

Pedro drew from both old and new concepts for the performance: On the one hand he used the Tshikona reed pipe dance of the Shona people from Limpopo, where each person only plays one note but the whole village can join in to play music together. On the other hand, he drew on a more modern phenomenon, the flashmob.

“The Tshikona way is a great way to teach people to rely on each other,” he explains. “You have to pay attention to each other and make space for each other; you also have to be creative in order to fit into what other people are doing.”

“Traditionally, whenever people get together they make music. There will always be music where people gather. In modern society however it becomes less and less so. We walk around with our earphones and there is much less participation and sharing. The Tshikona traditional very specifically restricts people in the group to one note each. So you can’t make music by yourself. The main object of music in Africa is to bring people together; this is a very deliberate and creative way people to do so. If you only have one note you have to go and find other people to make the melody.”

What did the audience think?  

Dina Townsend
Occupation: Lawyer
“It was really fun. I think it is important that we occupy our public space in sometimes devious and magical ways.”

Quintin Goliath
Occupation: Guitarist and hip-hop artist Jitsvinger
“There is something very honest and humble about public performance. The exposure makes the performers naked to criticism and judgment. It reminds us that in our own way we are all performers and that the everyday things that we do are also rituals and performances.”

Tammy Rinkwest
Occupation: High school student
“It is really something different”

Monique Moreira
Occupation: High school student
“It is intimidating and asks you to move out of your comfort zone”

Mandy Davids
Occupation: Newspaper seller on Thibault Square
“Normally Thibault Square is really quiet – this is nice.”

Rike Sitas
Occupation: Convener of the Public Culture CityLab at African Centre for Cities, lecturer at Vega and mother
“The idea of a schedule flashmob is a bit strange but the music was really incredible. Because it was in a popular register it appealed to different kinds of people and it was interesting to see how audience members reacted.”

Station agent

It’s Wednesday; the time is 15h32. It is a real scorcher in the city and the cool airy volume of the Cape Town Station offers rushing commuters a moment’s respite from the glare before they cram into rush-hour packed train carriages.

A familiar ding-dong sounds the comings and goings of the trains. But something is different today; discordant sounds are coming from somewhere. Is there construction work going on? Is that sound coming from the trains? Is someone singing, someone screaming?

The sound filtering into the cavernous space is Concert To – a project conceived and curated by the composer Pierre-Henri Wicomb. “I wanted to exposure the general public to electronic music in a different way,” he explains. “I approached twelve artists to each compose a 10-minute piece using everyday sounds. Although I briefed them, they had quite a lot of freedom which resulted in very diverse pieces.”

Although the original idea was to utilise the intercom system of the train station, Pierre-Henri ended up playing the piece on a conventional sound system on platforms 18-28. “The intercom system would have really contaminated the space with the music, whereas the radius of the sound system was about 20 metres and commuters had more of a chance encounter with the music.”

Pierre-Henri intends to have the repeat the performance in different spaces: “I envisioned three different scenarios for the piece,” he says. “The one would be where people walk into the music like at the station, the other will be a Stellenbosch gallery where people will come specifically for the music, and I would love to have the piece projected onto citizens from cars that move throughout the city.”

Photos by Sydelle Willow Smith

• Construction workers star the beat
• Pedro Espi-Sanchis tunes in, turning a cooldrink bottle into an improvised flute
• Audience members are given PVC pipes to help make the music
• The scene at the train station

This article first appeared in the April 2013 issue of City Views. Read it online.

This is Cape Town over the course of Infecting the City 2013: a city alive with music and dance, where public spaces became stages and our urban landscape formed the backdrop to performances by troupes of bicycling gospel singers and sweepers-up of 20 000 glow sticks.

As a free public arts festival, Infecting the City shows what happens when art gets out of the theatres and galleries and onto the streets. According to the curator of the festival, Jay Pather, “Public art lets us find beauty in our history, even those parts that are painful or difficult. South African culture is rooted in public performance, through ritual, celebration and protest. Public art and public art festivals like Infecting the City offer up opportunities for connectedness – taking art out of galleries and theatres and interrogating the essence of a city, while developing an audience.”

“We need to remember art is an asset even if it’s in our streets,” says Shani Judes, founder of local artist and project management company SJ Artists. “It’s important for the city to allow public art to happen and not just allow advertising. Artists need to be able to contribute to the city.”

Jonathan Garnham, director of blank projects gallery and chairperson of the Visual Art Network of South Africa (VANSA), agrees on the importance of public art in public life:  “Public art is important because it enhances a city’s quality of life, making places where we live and work more dignified, interesting and beautiful. It is accessible to all and creates civic pride, reflects and promotes local identity and leaves a legacy for future generations. Public art responds to the higher needs of a community, it gets people thinking, reflecting and promotes engagement and discussion which are important in the development of a community’s sense of self and place. It also helps with the regeneration and upliftment of an area, creating civic pride and attracting business and tourism which obviously has economic advantages.”

How can we make Cape Town look more like Infecting the City for the other 51 weeks of the year?

In the words of Stephen Hobbs, artist and founder of Trinity Session, the reason that public art is enjoying a resurgence in Johannesburg is that there is a policy that facilitates opportunities for artists working in public space, through the provision of up to 1% of city capital projects, allocated to artworks. “I think something like this should be adapted to Cape Town’s specific needs, to minimise the amount of administration required for artists to gain permission for their art. Depending on where City Capital is being spent, projects can be identified in relation to communities in need of both the influence of an artworks programme and education and skills transference relative to the artworks scheduled for production. Lastly, I think greater councillor participation in such processes would assist them in understanding the benefits of public art, not only as a means of supporting local cultural economies but also as a useful means for them to engage with their local constituents.”

The City of Cape Town’s department of arts and culture is currently working on a public arts regulatory framework, due to be published later this year. In June, the 2013 Ways To Do Public Art exhibition, planned in partnership with VANSA in the City Hall, will also be an opportunity for public participation around the issues of public art and public space in our city.

What can you do to ensure more public art in your community?

• Speak up.  According to Jonathan Garnham, public art is your right. “It should not only be enjoyed as an optional extra, but is actually one of our basic human rights:  [A principle of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, at principle 27.1], ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.’”
• Support artists and public art in your own community. Says Stephen, “Don’t be apathetic, don’t just sit there and receive works of art, engage with the artists themselves. I think in South Africa we are very confused about the difference between public and private spaces. We need to re-learn these boundaries such that we can feel more informed with people and things we find foreign.”
• Don’t wait to be invited. While opportunities like Infecting the City and Creative Week – during which you are actively invited to express yourself in public space – only happen once a year, performance in a public space can be as simple as a game of jump-rope in the park. Public art is too important in our cultural and community life only to be practiced during festivals and specially ordained weeks. Express yourself, and make space for the people around you to do the same.

What can Cape Town learn from other cities about public art?

• Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance – the organisation responsible for the turnaround of New York City’s Times Square – says that it’s important not to over-design public art in public spaces: “In the case of Times Square, we wanted to include public art while letting the city itself take centre stage. It was important that we saw public space as a theatre set, a place where the life of the city is on display and made manifest in that space. It was important not to overdesign, not overdo it. We like to say that this is the second best show on Broadway: the life of the city itself.” Read more about Times Square’s visit to Cape Town in 2012. Alternatively, just watch the video.
• Jeanne van Heeswijk, one of the speakers at Design Indaba 2013 and a visual artist who creates large-scale public space interactions, has worked in cities as diverse as Rotterdam and Liverpool and believes that there is no recipe to ensure public participation in public art. “In my work I set up a situation where we can start producing again. You have to set up camp; set up shop; set up your studio there. Start working on site with people in the conditions that are there. I think it is vital that all projects should be site-specific, context-specific, people-specific. There is no recipe for that because every situation is really different. Although there are some global trends and the pressure of capitalism drives the need for renewal everywhere, every situation is so specific: of course you have to work with the people who are there. I don’t think you should enter into a process completely blind: I do my research very well, but you have to go in there with the ability and the desire to learn about the situation and not with a preconceived plan or criteria or ideas. You can’t arrive with something and say: Oh, I already drew something that you might like … ” Read more of Jeanne’s thoughts on art interactions in public space.

Discover more

• Browse through Sydelle Willow Smith’s photos from Infecting the City 2013
• Watch Creative Cape Town’s YouTube playlist on public art from around the world
• Read the City of Cape Town’s graffiti by-law to know where we stand currently
• Later this month, Creative Cape Town will be hosting a Google Hangout with public art specialists from around the world. Stay tuned to Facebook for more details.

Text: Ambre Nicolson
Video: This video was made in collaboration with Africa Centre, produced by Muti, edited by Ryan Griffiths and set to the soundtrack of You Too Brutus by Bateleur. See a list of the featured artworks.
Images: 
– Power by iKapa, one of the performances from Infecting the City 2013, photographed by Sydelle Willow Smith.
– The “Before I die…” wall outside of Unknown Union on Kloof Street – a Candy Chang concept, brought to Cape Town by Steven Slotow and team, and photographed by Lisa Burnell

CV: Tell us a little bit more about your background.
I was born in Bethal, Gauteng, and we moved to the Paarl in the Boland when I was three, so I consider myself to be from Paarl. I graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in July last year. I‘ve now moved back to Cape Town, where I‘m starting my own studio to continue my investigations of fashion and beauty. I currently live in Oranjezicht.

CV: Why did you decide to settle in Cape Town?
I went to Amsterdam to get a great education; I came back to put it into practice. I want to be a part of South Africa’s exciting evolution and make a difference where it matters to me.

CV: How would you describe what you do?
I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer because of how strongly fashion communicates to everyone. It’s an interesting medium to work within. However, I think I‘ll stick with 3D accessories, because sewing with floppy fabrics really frustrates me. I like to create in the grey area between fashion, art and product design.

CV: A lot of your work seems to explore splicing, merging and creating hybrid forms. Why does this interest you?
I guess it’s because I always want to break the rules, like I mentioned before, about creating within the grey area. I love overstepping the lines.

CV: If you could splice Cape Town with another city, which one would it be and why?
What a fun thought! It would have to be Atlantis, and we should all be able to breathe under water.

CV: How was your world changed after the success of Scary Beautiful?
Getting recognition for my efforts has given me more substance in other people’s eyes; I’m being taken a bit more seriously now.

CV: What does presenting your work at Design Indaba mean to you?
I could never imagine myself speaking at a conference, so it’s a bit of a surprise to me. I am honoured and petrified.

CV: Why is it important that we talk about and reflect on design and design practice?
Design is people-friendly and therefore a great communicator for innovative ideas. It introduces people to new things in digestible and often tangible ways.

Take a look at Scary Beautiful and learn more about Leanie’s work go to www.cargocollective.com/leanie.

Green Market Square will be the centre of attention at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival Free Concert on Wednesday 3 April between 17h00 and 23h00, with the Brand New Heavies, Jimmy Dludlu, Candice Thornton and Jimmy Nevis as well as the St Joseph’s Marist College Jazz band.

Join in and enjoy grooving to the beats in the heart of Cape Town’s CBD.

• Stay up to date with news on the event follow these twitter accounts: @CTJazzFest and @CreativeCT
• Avoid parking hassles, view the MyCiti website for information on public transport: http://www.capetown.gov.za/MyCiti/

For more details, read the press release sent out by the organisers of the festival

The 14^th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTJIF) Free Concert is going to get heavy this year with some of the Mother City’s most celebrated local talent playing alongside the pioneers of acid jazz.

On Wednesday 3 April 2013 one of the most successful acid-jazz/UK funk groups of all time the Brand New Heavies will join one of South Africa’s jazz greats Jimmy Dludlu as well as winner of the popular local Open Mic Jazz Vocal completion Candice Thornton, Cape Town pop star Jimmy Nevis and the St Joseph’s Maritzs School band on the stage in Green Market Square.

The Brand New Heavies are a British band whose unique mix of jazz, funk and soul has lit up the dance scene for well over two decades, and they show no sign of stopping.  They first become known in the 1980s as an instrumental acid jazz group and have became a significant feature of the British music landscape.

Jimmy Dludlu is a self-taught acclaimed guitarist, arranger, band leader and singer, known internationally for his original African Jazz and fusion music.

Joining these international stars is well-known jazz, blues, R&B and gospel singer Candice Thornton who mesmerized the crowd at the finals of the Open Mic Jazz Vocal context last year.

Born and raised in Cape Town 20 year-old Jimmy Nevis is a singer, songwriter and producer. His debut album is now being distributed in the USA while he is topping the charts with his second single hit Heartboxing.

The St Joseph’s Marist College Jazz band hails from the Peninsular and first started out six years ago. Their repertoire ranges from traditional jazz standards to more contemporary pieces, showcasing the versatility of the musicians in the group.

Festival director and CEO of espAfrika Rashid Lombard says: “The Free Community concert is now a well-established Cape Town tradition over the festival period. It is a special evening packed with live music as an exceptional gig for those who are unable to make it to the main show.

“The free concert has been running as long as the Cape Town International Jazz festival itself and is a non- negotiable component of what the Cape Town International Jazz Festival wants to offer the people of Cape Town.”

“This is truly a night for the Cape Town community. The atmosphere promises to be full of excitement as the square buzzes with the sounds of local and international jazz music. We expect to see the square full of on the day as we do every year, as locals gather to experience an evening of rich sounds.”

The Free Concert on Wednesday 3 April 2013 starts at 5pm and is scheduled to end at 11pm. It forms part of the festival’s Sustainable Training and Development (T&D) programme, sponsored by the City of Cape Town, the Department of Arts and Culture, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) through the South Atlantic Arts and Culture Trust, the SABC and South African Tourism.

espAfrika will notify the public about road closures around Green Market Square well before the concert.

Paul Mashatile, Minister of Arts and Culture says: “The festival’s ten different empowerment and skills development initiatives represent powerful set of interventions that provide experiences and opportunities to individuals who would never otherwise have them. The Department of Arts and Culture is proud to be associated with this vital component of the annual jazz event as it opens up new opportunities and expands awareness of the power of arts and culture in our society.”

“The SABC has a long history with the CTIJF and during 2012 entered into a three year partnership with Cape Town’s grandest gathering. The partnership extends beyond broadcasting and talks to shared values and a desire for skills transfer to happen,” says Kaizer Kganyago, spokesperson of the SABC.

“The SABC is proud to be the co-sponsor of the festival’s T&D programme, aimed at a new generation of musicians, arts journalists and photographers. In order for measureable progress to take place from the T&D initiative, the focus should not be based upon short term results only – developmental work requires longer time frames to deliver meaningful and lasting impact.

Patricia De Lille, Executive Mayor of Cape Town: “It is heart-warming to know that many children from in and around Cape Town are exposed to music, musical instruments and rhythms in an entirely new way. The City and this festival have a long track record together: the event attracts visitors to our city while its communities actively participate in the festival.

NLDTF CEO Ms Charlotte Mampane: “We at the NLDTF are involved in supporting arts and culture, together with welfare, sport and recreation. Under the leadership of our Chairperson, Professor Nevhutanda, we are all very passionate about the job creation in the various organisations we fund each year. Our investment to the South Atlantic Arts and Culture Trust for the T&D programme for this year’s festival is a valuable investment for the development of the music and entertainment industry.”

ends

For more information about the 2013 Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) visit www.capetownjazzfest.com.

The Free Concert on Wednesday 3 April 2013 starts at 17h00 and is scheduled to end at 23h00.  Members of the media are invited to and are welcome to attend. However, please let us know in advance that you would like to attend. Contact: Njabulo Mngomezulu on Tel+27 11 506-7322 and Email njabulom@meropa.co.za  

For more information, photographs and interviews:

Njabulo Mngomezulu
Meropa Communications
+27 11 506-7322
njabulom@meropa.co.za

Alexandra van Essche
Meropa Communications
+27 11 506-7364
alexve@meropa.co.za

If music is a language, is the conversation we’re having in it inclusive? Is it accessible to a broad range of people, regardless of their income or background?

Launching City All Sessions

In an effort to begin answering those questions, and further the debate, Creative Cape Town has made a decision: to take music back to the streets with an evolution of our popular series, City Hall Sessions. On 7 March we will be launching City All Sessions: a new and exciting free concert series, to be held on Greenmarket Square on the first Thursday of every month. City All Sessions takes the music we stage in City Hall onto the streets of Cape Town, giving all Capetonians an opportunity to enjoy original music from the city, country and continent, in a public space, for free.

So be sure to mark you calendar for 17h30 on the first Thursday of each month, starting 7 March: City All Sessions have been programmed to coincide with and complement arts and culture movement First Thursdays, so that you have enough time to explore galleries in the central city (which remain open from 17h00 to 21h00 every first Thursday), enjoy some original sounds on the square, and make the most of the city’s restaurants and bars.

“As part of our vision to make Cape Town more people-friendly and to celebrate the city’s soul, the Cape Town Partnership, through its Creative Cape Town programme, is using the language of music to animate Greenmarket Square on a regular basis,” says Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, managing director of the Cape Town Partnership. “Through these concerts, we hope to give people a reason to linger in the central city after work and afford them more ways to enjoy their city in the evening. My hope is that this initiative will spark similar events that will continue to transform Cape Town into a vibrant and liveable city 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – not just during our annual landmark events.”

The series will be introduced with an unplugged performance by the Native Groove Collective (listen to them on SoundCloud), an eight-piece brass band arranged and directed by Mandla Mlangeni on trumpet (listen to this live recording of Mandla’s Tune Recreation Committee at the Cape Audio College). The group will play a repertoire including original compositions and some South African classics, starting on the feeder routes into Greenmarket, then collecting in the square itself.

What to expect from City All Sessions:

• An announcement of the monthly line-up every first Tuesday of the month, via the Creative Cape Town newsletter: If you’ve not yet signed up for the newsletter, you can do so here.
• A monthly sound experiment that starts small but builds up into a main offering in the city over time.
• A complement to City Hall Sessions, a music series that will continue in City Hall at key moments throughout the year, starting with a Freedom Day weekend concert (watch this space for dates and more details).

More music in March (and April)

1. Every March, Cape Town becomes the stage for all manner of (free) performances, as part of Infecting the City, a public arts festival staged by the Africa Centre. The works, ranging from visual arts to live arts (as well as any number of sound installations) are designed to encourage people to discover, define and experience Cape Town’s central city together. Go to www.infectingthecity.com to plan how you will make the most of the full programme.
2. City Hall also sets the stage for two conferences exploring the business side of the music industry. First up is the Music Exchange conference and workshop from 21 to 23 March, that looks to build a more sustainable entertainment industry in South Africa through knowledge sharing and by giving artists a platform to showcase their talent. For programme updates, go to www.musicexchange.co.za.
3. The inaugural Breath Sunshine African Music conference takes place on 1 and 2 April and aims to encourage networking and the sharing of information between all involved in the African music community. The conference includes workshops, panel discussions, presentations, exhibitions and a concert showcasing African talent. For all the information you need, stay tuned to www.breathesunshineconference.com.
4. If that isn’t enough music for you, make sure you’ve booked your tickets for the 14^th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival on 5 and 6 April at the CTICC. As part of the build-up to the main event, you have yet another opportunity to enjoy free music on Greenmarket Square with the people’s concert on 3 April at 17h00. The line-up for this free concert is still to be announced, so stay tuned to www.capetownjazzfest.com.
5. Finally, keep a look-out for the April edition of City Views, a placemaking publication and community paper co-published by the Central City Improvement District and the Cape Town Partnership. April’s theme is all around the soundscape of the city, and takes inspiration from the many music events happening in Cape Town in the next two months. www.capetownpartnership.co.za/city-views

Image credit: As part of the build-up to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the people’s concert comes to Greenmarket Square every year. With City All Sessions, Capetonians can now experience high quality music from the continent, for free, every month of the year. Photo by Lisa Burnell.

Alayne Reesberg, the newly appointed CEO of Cape Town Design – the company established to deliver on Cape Town’s World Design Capital 2014 commitments – is understandably busy: She has eleven months to pull together a year’s worth of design-related programming. Her busy calendar notwithstanding, she found the time to sit down with Creative Cape Town to give us some insight into who she is, what her vision for World Design Capital 2014 is, and why she brought quinces to her interview for the position of CEO.

Why did you want to be part of World Design Capital 2014?
It is a dream job in many ways. It combines many of the things that I love: design, facilitating conversations that have never happened before, certainly working under pressure, and the potential to use this opportunity as a vehicle for change. A lot of really good work was done during the bidding process to get the people of Cape Town excited and I know that ICSID – the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design – felt that the idea has somehow landed with the people. So we have at our fingertips not only world-class design, but also a citizenry who are ready, willing and able to assist and support the effort. We’ve also got the attention of a global market that is looking to us with anticipation and excitement, asking “What have you got?” My big job is to harness all of this and make sure that a lot of people are able to bring their skills to the process.

How do you intend harnessing people’s enthusiasm, as well as their skills, around World Design Capital 2014?
Broadly there will be a call for public proposals that will go out in the middle of February. The call will ask people for their most audacious ideas and how they would make them a reality. We all walk the streets and inhabit the city in different ways, and we’ve all had the experience of thinking, “If only this was like that” or “What if this worked like that?” Now is an opportunity to do something, and the challenge is to put the right pieces in place and to do it spectacularly. We’re not only looking for new projects or ideas but also for existing initiatives that are already doing spectacular work. 

You’ve worked in some high-powered corporate environments as well as in diplomacy as a negotiator. How does this experience help you deliver on Cape Town’s plans and promises for 2014?
As negotiator I’ve been part of multi-party negotiations and have seen how people can, under very high-pressured circumstances, keep cool heads and work towards a bigger goal. I am sure these experiences will serve me well. The other experience that will be hugely relevant was my work at Microsoft. Working with people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, you learn that they have very high expectations. I always used to ask myself “What would Gates find interesting?” and the list isn’t very long. So it is about really knowing what your audience wants, honouring their expectations and then delivering flawlessly. If someone lands at Cape Town International Airport and their taxi ride into town isn’t up to scratch, you can never erase that first experience. We need to ensure that we are designing the whole visitor experience from the moment they step off the plane, and we need to sustain it throughout the year. To achieve this, we need everyone to be involved.

What is the City’s role in 2014 versus that of Cape Town Design? It’s all a bit confusing…
Yes, there is a great overlap between our objectives – and we are aligned in that – but the City’s obligation is public services and delivering a better life for citizens, while the Cape Town Design company is specifically focused on the design community.

Part of Cape Town’s 2014 designation involves hosting six signature events. Is planning these your first priority?
Six signature events will happen during a whole year of excitement and we will deliver them well. Other cities have delivered similar events and so we know how high the standards are, but for me the trick is to thread all of these things together into a connective tissue that doesn’t end when the whistle blows. The challenge is to sustain the attention, to sustain the dialogue throughout the year and beyond. We’re not looking to do quick opportunistic things that don’t have any legacy. Although we don’t have a large budget, we want to tackle things in bite-size chunks and put them on a solid footing so that they have a trajectory into the future.

What is your definition of design?
Simply thinking before doing. Designers make decisions based on their knowledge and the impact their actions might have. We are all designing our lives and our days. One of my favourite design objects is the Consol jar. I took one filled with quinces from Calvinia into my interview. I use the jars throughout my house, even in the bathroom, to store things in, and they also make a great flower vase. Between the first jar and the new Consol solar LED light jar is a wonderful local design history of 101 years. Design is not just about high-end things but everyday functional things that are made beautifully.

How does the ordinary person on the street get ready for 2014?
I would just ask Capetonians to participate. Become active citizens. If you live in town and usually go to Greenmarket Square, do something different and go to Stellenbosch. If you live in Bloubergstrand, why not go to the CBD for a change. Although 2014 will provide temporary interest in areas that people don’t usually go to or engage with, it is about changing behaviour more permanently. I think we should, for example, have programmes running on public transport: Free entertainment while you commute might drive new behaviour.

When visitors think of Cape Town, they often think of Table Mountain and the sea. How do we make sure they know that there is so much more to the city?
We don’t have the architectural fabric that Europe has. We have some jewels and some interesting contemporary developments, but it is not connected into a concise experience. It is up to us to write that narrative, so that when visitors come, we can take them by the hand and say, “This is our story”. We all live by stories. That is how we learn and engage. All design tells a story and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t stand the test of time. We also need to honour all the people who are part of that narrative. I want people to hear our story and feel hopeful and excited. I want them to think of coming back or of investing in Cape Town, of recruiting some of our talent, or exporting some of our design goods.

As 2014 draws near, the Cape Town Partnership, drivers of Cape Town’s successful World Design Capital bid, will now join various other agencies and institutions in support of the City of Cape Town and Cape Town Design’s joint implementation efforts. The new official World Design Capital 2014 website is currently under construction, but you can visit www.wdccapetown2014.com to register your details and interest. In the meantime, read the journey of bringing Cape Town’s World Design Capital 2014 bid vision to life.

We’ve all transformed the space around us into a playground at one point or another – with just a little imagination and a few props. A piece of chalk can prepare a bare patch of pavement for a game of hopscotch and two pairs of shoes can turn an empty field into the pitch for a neighbourhood soccer match. Now, a new generation of games are unlocking cities across the globe in similarly playful ways. And Cape Town’s no different.

It’s called the Squirrel Run, and the principle is simple: You and your friends take a walk in the park and every time you see a dog, you have to run to a tree like a squirrel seeking safety. Only one person is allowed per tree and the last person to reach a tree gets a penalty point. By the time you leave the park the person with the most penalty points loses.

This was just one of the 99 Tiny Games that were developed by game design studio Hide&Seek and hosted across the 32 boroughs of London (33 including the City of London itself, although technically not a borough) during the 2012 Olympic Games.

New York also takes its urban gaming seriously, hosting an annual street games festival called Come Out & Play. Examples of games on offer in the Apple include Ran Some, Ransom, where contestants have to match images on printed transparency sheets with features in their urban environment or on their city skyline, and Shadowplay, a large-scale street game projected directly onto buildings where players jump, dash, stretch and contort their shadows in a bid to score points.

Many games use gadgets like GPS-enabled phones, digital cameras and even MP3 players to amplify what’s possible in their urban playground.

Geocaching is free real-world outdoor treasure hunt in which participants use GPS (global positioning system) devices to seek out containers or geocaches, the GPS positions of which have been tagged on a website. Finding these locations might sound relatively easy, but GPS is only accurate up to a few metres, so contestants have to rely on their deductive abilities to unravel additional puzzles in order to find the containers.

Hidden somewhere on the slopes of Table Mountain are several caches, including a heritage cache filled with objects that reflect the some of the richness of South African culture – chosen by prominent artists such as William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Willem Boshoff, Lien Botha, Willie Bester and Brett Murray.

Some of the caches hidden in the Central City of Cape Town will take you on a quest through the Bo-Kaap mosques, while a Mother City Meander series includes hidden treasures in the Jewish Museum.

With an estimated 5-million caches hidden across the globe, geocaching has become so popular that it is even used by tourists to organise their exploration of new places, with caches leading them off the beaten track of traditional tourist attractions to unexpected discoveries.

Is it all just fun and games or can these playful experiences teach us new ways to look at – and into – our urban environment? Why not try it for yourself, and let us know.

Tag, you’re it

It’s time to organise your own urban game. The idea is to have fun and make the most of the city’s public spaces. If you like the sound of geocaching in Cape Town, log on to www.geocaching.com to begin your journey to where X marks the spot.

Text by Alma Viviers, photo of school pupils in the Company’s Garden by Jacques Marais Media

This article first appeared in the December issue of City Views. Read it online.

As we move into 2013 and ready ourselves for Cape Town’s year as World Design Capital in 2014 – when a wide window of opportunity for the creative arts and industries opens – what can you do as a local creative or a supporter of the creative industries to prepare, connect and plug into opportunity?

Plugging into opportunities

In the short to medium term, there are three new opportunities in which Creative Cape Town is involved, and in which you can be too: 

1. Cape Town Summer Market: Previously known as the Adderley Street night market, the Cape Town Summer Market will turn the length of Government Avenue into a giant outdoor shopping and family entertainment experience from 14 to 24 December 2012. Running from 12h00 (noon) to 21h00 daily, the market is set to feature more than 200 stalls selling a mixture of street-style and artisanal goods. If you are an artisan, crafter or purveyor of fine food interested in being part of the experience, the market organisers are still accepting stall registrations. Call 083 899 7312 or email vendorsct@adelelucas.co.za.

2. First Thursdays: For art lovers, gallery hopping in Cape Town is taking on a whole new dimension with First Thursdays, an initiative that sees galleries in the CBD extending their opening hours to 21h00 on the first Thursday of every month. The initiative is still in its infancy (the second event is happening this Thursday, 6 December 2012) and there are a number of opportunities to be involved – as artists, galleries, restaurants and retailers in the city – and make the most of more people being on our city streets in the evening. Why not consider:

• Aligning your new exhibition opening, launch or concert with the event,
• Hosting a public office or opening up your studio to passers-by,
• Turning your restaurant into a gallery for one night,
• Devising some walk-through takeaways along the First Thursday route,
• Extending your retail hours,
• Offering your shop window to an artist for the night to show their work or to create a unique window display for your products, or
• Temporarily turning the city streets into gallery walls?

If you have an idea or an interest, contact goodevening@first-thursdays.co.za to be a part of activating the streets of Cape Town every First Thursday.

3. Tjing Tjing Exchange: Every two months, Tjing Tjing Rooftop Bar showcases a curated cross-selection of creative products and services. Part market, part networking opportunity, the Tjing Tjing Exchange should be a regular feature in your diary. As part of supporting the initiative, Creative Cape Town helps curate the selection available every month, so if you’d like to exhibit or get involved, contact us directly outlining your product or proposition.

Shaping new opportunities

A lot has been written – by artists like Maira Kalman to others like Julia Cameron – about how walking and cycling can help facilitate the creative process and free up your thinking, so as you’re using the summer months to recharge and (re)create, be sure to make the most of your city: Longer sunshine hours have also translated into extended operating hours, both in our public parks and on public transport. Both the Company’s Garden and the Green Point Urban Park have extended their opening hours for the summer, from 06h00 until 20h30 every day, and MyCiTi will be running one hour later on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays during the festive season. The Sea Point Promenade is also open to bicycles, skateboards and rollerblades for the whole summer. To celebrate, be sure to experience Promenade Mondays with your skateboard (or a willingness to learn how to use one) and to join our city’s many mass cycling movements.

Reflecting on a year of opportunities

Just as the creative process is organic, so too is Creative Cape Town’s process and programmatic focus, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in 2012. Here’s the year in review, seen through the lens of our monthly newsletter updates.

December 2011/January 2012: We questioned the role of public art in public culture
February 2012: We asked what design can do … for you
March 2012: We looked into the rise of collaboration in the creative industries
April 2012: We said goodbye to Zayd Minty, asking him what it takes to lead Creative Cape Town
May 2012: We proposed 10 easy ways everybody can support the creative industries
June 2012: We asked how temporary urban interventions can help drive change
July 2012: We introduced you to the new head of Creative Cape Town, Farzanah Badsha
August 2012: We shared Times Square’s lessons in activating public space
September 2012: We asked you to invigorate Cape Town’s public places
October 2012: We showed you how your efforts are helping transform Harrington Street
November 2012: We debated whether the term ‘world music’ is outdated 

We’d love your feedback on what we’re doing right, and what we could do better, both in terms of these monthly newsletter updates, as well as events led and supported by Creative Cape Town (whether they’re City Hall Sessions, Design Storming, or Creative Week). Please do mail us directly with your input and ideas.

If monthly updates aren’t enough for you, then be sure to join the daily conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

See you on the streets of Cape Town this summer.

Image of Government Avenue and the Company’s Garden by Jacques Marais Media.