The City of Cape Town’s Department of Arts and Culture, in partnership with the Lovell Gallery, will host a public discussion addressing the politics and practices around contemporary street art on Wednesday, 17 October 2012.
The forum will take place from 16:00 to 18:00 at the Lovell Gallery, 139 Albert Road, Woodstock. The City’s draft Graffiti by-law will be up for discussion as well as ‘street art in the social and political life of the city,’ ‘Street Art as Fine Art – addressing street art as visual culture’ and public/street art Policies both nationally and internationally. This will be followed by a film screening of a street art documentary.
“The City of Cape Town is committed to enabling creativity in our city. The World Design Capital 2014 accolade is evidence of our growing stature as a cultural capital. The promotion of public art, including street art, is critical to a city with aspirations to foster creativity,” says Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing.
The City aims to market and develop arts and culture in Cape Town in a manner that celebrates Cape Town’s rich diversity while contributing to economic growth. One of the ways to achieve this is the drafting a Public Art Regulatory Framework. Such forums as well as upcoming Public Art workshops will go a long way in helping to develop this framework.
Cape Town, as a World Design Capital for 2014, is keen on bringing high quality, thought-provoking and innovative art out of theatres and galleries into the public domain where it is free and accessible to the public. Street art (graffiti, murals, stencil art and public installations) are seen as a way of exposing unexpected perspectives of Cape Town and reconnecting communities through the use of public spaces.
“For this reason we are pleased to have brought this forum of artists, industry leaders and cultural practitioners to discuss public art. This forum is part of the City’s ongoing attempts to nurture local art and artists, to beautify and enliven city spaces and to create an enabling environment for public art”, says Councillor Pascoe.
The street art discussion Forum will be chaired by Zayd Minty (Manager of the City’s Arts and Culture Department) with panelists Augustine Kofi (international street artist), Ricky-Lee Gordon (Word of Art), Farzanah Badsha (Creative Cape Town) and Roger van Wyk (Educentric cc).
For more information or to confirm your attendance email Nikita Campbell Nikita.Campbell@capetown.gov.za or call 021 417 4095.
