Socio/Cultural Intervention Workshop conducted by Afrika Cultural Centre for Women in Dialogue

A project under the patronage of the First Lady, Mrs Zanele Mbeki

A socio/cultural and development intervention workshop with 600 young women as part of the annual Women in Dialogue programme will take place in Meyerton, Vereeniging from 10-14 December 2007.

The workshops will offer participants a dynamic journey of creative discovery of self, family and community, of memory and dreams - a personal and collective rendering of history, their own stories and narratives through the expressive arts (theatre, music, movement and dance, visual arts, creative writing - poetry/prose, media arts - photography/film).

Essentially dialogical, this creative intervention will remove inter and intra personal barriers and open up expressive communication amongst the participants. It will, in freeing inhibitions and reservations, offer reflection and action, therapy and healing and participatory enjoyment and satisfaction.

Working from an exploration of self-image, values and rights, the workshop will articulate and express perceptions, and understandings of individual and collective experiences/circumstances through the sensory, emotional, cognitive and physical process of creativity. The process will offer a dynamic social environment for democratic participation and empowerment.

Invitation - Herbert Dhlomo Memorial Lecture

Delivered by: BENJY FRANCIS
Director, Writer and Arts Educator
Saturday 08 December 2007
18h00 - 21h30

PROGRAMME
18h00 - 19h00
FREEDOM'S CHILDREN - selected stories as performed by students of the Centre for Research and Training in African Theatre

Refreshments

19h45
Herbert Dhlomo Lecture
Discussion
Launch of Arts Website
Drinks

Venue
HERBERT DHLOMO THEATRE
AFRIKA CULTURAL CENTRE
52/62 HENRY NXUMALO STREET
NEWTOWN JOHANNESBURG

Reservations
info@afrikaculturalcentre.com
cell: 084 753 5381
fax: 011 264 0996
Limited Seating

Please be seated by 17h50 for the performance
SECURE PARKING AVAILABLE

Africa Children's International Film Festival - ACIFF

In December 2008 an annual independent international children's film festival will be inaugurated in South Africa in partnership with an International Children's Film Festival as part of a global alliance on cinema education and as a focal point for a year round artistic and technical education and development programme for children and young people in cinema, theatre and related arts and culture. At the same time we will unveil the establishment of Children's film clubs in various locations nationally to encourage film literacy and child/parent participation.

This project, seven years in the making is thoroughly researched and planned. We are now ready to invite partners from public and private sectors to share in its development. Contact the director at info@afrikaculturalcentre.com

Development of Facilities

Interested parties are invited to participate in this dynamic project. There are many exciting opportunities for investment in the arts and in human development. We seek professional quality and excellence in everything we undertake.

Volunteers and Resources

The Centre welcomes assistance from persons with skills in administration, management and creativity.
All manner of resources from money to art materials, transport to musical instruments, old clothes, furniture, utensils, kitchen and gardening equipment, computers and copiers etc are needed to achieve our goals.

Auditions/ Interviews

Full-time and part-time students are invited to apply for auditions and interviews for 2008 on the following programmes

Young People's Creative Workshops - ages 7 - 18, Saturdays 09h00 - 16h00 and holidays. Admission is by interview. Programmes begin with the second Saturday in January 2008.

Centre for Research and Training in African Theatre -
• Post-matriculation full-time 2 year actor's course - Foundation Level
• 3rd year specialisation year - acting - Advanced Level
Admission is by audition. Programmes begin on the 3rd week of February 2008.

Media Communication Unit - children and youth. Programmes in print, radio, still and moving images are offered. Programmes begin on the second Saturday in January 2008

Culture Club
Monthly gatherings will begin on January 2008. Watch this space for details of quarterly programmes.


For an application form, please email info@afrikaculturalcentre.com

Herbert Dhlomo Theatre

A season of three new works is in rehearsal currently for the opening season of 2008.

National Dialogue on Theatre

This is an active campaign to raise concerns about the state of theatre in particular and the arts in general in our country with regular debates, discussions, seminars, workshops and performances culminating in a 1 day national festival of theatre on World Theatre Day, 27 March 2008.

Schools, University Drama Departments, Community Groups, Art/Culture Centres, Amateur Theatre Societies, Professional Companies, Civic and Provincial Theatres and commercial Theatres and the State Theatre and all interested artists will be encouraged to participate in the dialogue and the festival. Details of this campaign will be communicated to theatre practitioners and institutions by press and email.

During this time we will work towards the establishment of a National Theatre Centre to co-ordinate this activity and to publish regular reports on events.

Ben Arnold - Sculptor

Ben Arnold is a sculptor and long standing friend of the centre who initially studies under Cecil Skotnes in the Polly Street Art School and now works at the Bag Factory. His sculptures impart a sense of history as well as an aura of spiritual intent that derives from his perspective as a Muslim.

The array of sculptures on display at the Bag Factory in an exhibition titled Voyage, immediately intrigue the viewer, since the forms are abstract and yet also referential. This is a feeling that the artist is mediating his artistic expression and allowing it to formulate in abstract terms.

For instance, the powerful Germination Series makes reference to the earth and the possibilities of growth but the forms used to express the idea seem also mathematically inspired. These are angular terracotta arches over a form reminiscent of the dolos used to stem the tidal erosion on shorelines.

Arnold chooses to contrast different emotions that engage in dialogue with one another. The treatment of one element will be scarified and rough while another is polished. Rhythms run through both, engaging in polymorphic discourse.
Many of the works inhabit a style that gained prominence during the sixties and consisted of rounded, interlocking shaped derived from abstracting a figure. Henry Moore was perhaps the original inspiration for these soft flowing sculptures. Arnold uses the style emotionally, so sculpture with titles like Grief and Idle Dreams use the figuration to escape into abstraction.

Muslim beliefs forbid idolatry and proscribe the range of artistic expression in much the same way as Judaism. American Abstract Expressionism was very influenced by this religious tendency.

However, Arnold’s work is intriguing, and brings to mind Plato’s idea of the evolution of form from a mathematical abstraction to the object experienced in reality.

Arnold’s wall pieces, called Forest Floor Series or the Four Seasons, have these strange shapes that seem to be precursors of experienced forms, like stones or plants. Sometimes they almost depict the passage of energy that could ultimately manifest as an object.

Rough discs seem like squashed dough platelets and give the impression of the artist almost willing his mind away from expression and allowing his fingers to reach a moment of primal form. It is not child-like of naïve, however, and the contrasting shapes establish a lyricism of being and not being.

At once it is a circle or an ellipse and yet also a stem or a direction.

Ashley Johnson
Art & Leisure – Business Day
28/07/03