In line with its vision to be an Arts Faculty that nurtures creativity, innovation and cultural understanding; and a mission to contribute innovatively to the socio-economic development of Africa and the world through culture-led social, economic and physical regeneration, the Faculty of the Arts at the Tshwane University of Technology is inviting abstracts for papers to be delivered at its Arts, Society and Sustainable Development Conference.
The aim of the conference is to assemble art practitioners (visual and performing), professionals, designers, academics, researchers, government officials, cultural workers, and industry partners to share creativity, knowledge, and understanding across boundaries; and to offer a platform for the interrogation of the relationship between the arts and community development. This will assist in strengthening arts’ engagement and participation and become part of the momentum that will carry our industry forward into the coming decade. Development is a vast area of human endeavour. Development is not limited to the narrow confines of economic growth and improvement of infrastructure in the urban areas. Development is taken holistically to include “The ability of the members of a community to relate creatively to themselves, their neighbours, their environment, and the world at large, so that each one might express his maximum potential. Such development, then, has a lot to do with the distribution of power and of resources – who gets what, how, and why? It is, basically, a process of empowerment” (Pradervand, 1989: xvii). The conference encourages debates around socio-cultural development of the community, development of products, entrepreneurship, and the economy. Aspects such as ability to brand, to determine niche markets, to develop business plans and attract customers, should be investigated because in today’s knowledge economy they play critical roles in the development of the arts and design. Are there challenges militating against the development of policies to nurture growth in the culture industries? What are the challenges? Presentations should be geared towards centre-staging arts’ capacity to help shape the past, present and future of contemporary societies. Papers must address the conference theme and the sub-themes.