Artscape Theatre Centre and the City of Cape Town signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Tuesday, 7 November, as part of a grant-in-aid towards a host of projects of the theatre’s 2018 Audience Development and Education programme. The MOU was officiated by Artscape’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Marlene le Roux and the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety, Security and Social Services , Alderman J P Smith
A host of projects and programmes will be supported by this grant.
The funding would ensure that Women’s Arts and Humanity Festival continue to provide a platform for grassroots communities and women in particular to celebrate and honour the legacy of National Women’s Day through the Arts.
Recognising the immense challenges facing the Youth of today inclusive of socio-economic issues, the grant will assist Artscape’s Youth programme including the Youth Classical- and Youth Jazz music festivals the School Arts Programme, inclusive of the staged setwork productions, and the High School Drama programme. Through the Arts these programmes assist the Youth in resolving some of these challenges.
Earlier this year, Artscape launched its first Artist-in-Residency programme with world-renowned indigenous artist Dizu Plaatjies. The programme included a series of workshops throughout the year resulting in Artscape’s first Indigenous Ensemble. Thanks to the City of Cape Town grant, this is another of Artscape’s programmes that can now be extended to 2018.
Training and development will be another beneficiary programme of the City’s funding which will be channelled through Artscape’s Resource Centre. The Centre aims to provide a space for developing artists to hone their administrative and artistic skills towards a sustainable career in the Arts.
Says Artscape Chief Executive Officer (CEO)Marlene le Roux: “Our skills and training programmes focus on education and empowering the youth and emerging performing artists to ensure they are adequately equipped to operate and compete at an optimum level in the world of arts and culture. Therefore this grant by the City of Cape Town is of immense value towards the ethos of promoting all arts forms at a once exclusive centre, in order to contribute to sustainable economic development within the arts and culture sector.”
