Creative Week Cape Town is just around the corner! This 10 day event (9-18 September 2011) was created as a forerunner to the Loeries with the aim to showcase local creativity in design, music, film, theatre, business, innovation, digital media, fine arts and crafts in Cape Town. Creatives in Cape Town are invited to add their event, exhibition or other creative happening to the Creative Week Cape Town website. The idea is that all events are independently planned and organized and then promoted using the website and a centralized marketing campaign.

A couple of events have already been added. You can check them out here.

Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre will present David Kramer and Taliep Petersen’s Olivier Award winning musical Kat & The Kings and there is an opportunity to audition for this smash hit musical at the Fugard Theatre on 20 and 21 August 2011.

The producers are looking for 4 young men (must pass as teenagers, so late teens or early 20’s) and 1 young woman (in her 20’s), who can sing, act and dance their socks off!

Set in South Africa in the 1950s, the musical explores the journey of teenager Kat Diamond, who is convinced that he is the best singer and dancer in District Six. He forms the a cappella group the Cavalla Kings with his friends Ballie, Magoo, Bingo, and young Kat. The quintet, with their American doo wop and rock and roll influences becomes a sensation, graduating from street corners to “whites only” nightclubs, and a recording contract.

After touring South Africa, the original production of Kat & The Kings was invited to the Tricycle Theatre in London in November 1997. The production transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in London’s West End.

Kat & the Kings won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 1999, and the whole cast won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical in the same year.

The show received Tony and Olivier Award nominations in the Best Choreography category. The Broadway production opened on August 19, 1999 at the Cort Theatre, where it ran for 157 performances.

Slots for auditions for the 2012 run of Kat & the Kings at the Fugard Theatre in District 6 can be booked by e-mailing boxoffice2@thefugard.com or calling 021 461 4554. Times for the auditions will be confirmed via return mail or telephone call.

World Design Capital organising committee members Dilki de Silva and Martin Darbyshire being shown around the 10×10 Low-Cost Housing project in Freedom Park, Mitchells Plain, by architect Luyanda Mpahlwa. Also in this image, from left, is Cape Town Partnership MD Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, Alderman Felicity Purchase and Mike Purdham from Design Indaba

Yellow fever swept the local creative community (yellow is the colour of Cape Town’s World Design Capital bid) as more and more stakeholders saw that winning the title would bring a shot of creative energy and global design-focused attention onto the destination.

His Grace Desmond Tutu made a special appearance at a gala dinner held in honour of the World Design Capital selection committee’s visit on Tuesday night. He led a blessing for the assembled guests, which included Premier Helen Zille and Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille.

Our guests of honour take a moment for the camera at Tuesday night’s World Design Capital 2014 gala dinner. From left: Christopher Till, Mugendi M’Rithaa, Premier Helen Zille, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, ICSID Secretary General Dilki de Silva, Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Andrew Boraine and Adrienne Viljoen

At a capacity Cape Town Design Network event (attended by De Silva and Darbyshire), which was held at the Fringe in Cape Town’s East City on Monday, 25 July, Design Indaba founder, Ravi Naidoo, announced a challenge to the Cape Town creative community in the form of a competition; Your Street. The initiative invites creative proposals for how an aspect of Cape Town street life can be enhanced through the power of design thinking. The best idea will receive R 50 000 in cash. If the person who brings in the idea also has the business plan and commitment to funding to achieve it, they will receive R 150 000.

Impromptu pledges then came in from the audience as architect (and previous Design Indaba 10×10 Housing Project competition winner), Luyanda Mphahlwa, promised a further R50 000 for the most innovative idea, and design leaders,  XYZ, leapt up to add R 50 000 worth of design fees towards the creation of the product in reality. Entry into the competition closes on 31 August 2011. Details are at http://www.designindaba.com/yourstreetaware and competitive environment,

Naidoo pointed out that being able to live with an understanding of both the first world and the third world allows Capetonians, and South Africans, the advantage of viewing the world through a unique prism, and as such, allowing us to access two thirds of humanity as a market place.

The Cape Town Partnership has been responsible for managing the World Design Capital Bid to date. Managing Director, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, explained that design in this context goes beyond the creation of product and aesthetics; “In our application for the bid, we focused on design as a tool for transformation and re-integration. Examples include the IRT transport system, which will allow us all to experience less traffic, a project like the Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading in Khayelitsha, which has provided a safe, stimulating space for the community, and the Sustainability Institute in Lynedoch where environmental and social sustainability is being both academically rooted and practically applied.”

Green Cabs, the official transport for the World Design Capital organising committee, parked outside the 10×10 Low-Cost Housing project in Freedom Park, Mitchells Plain

Says Makalima-Ngewana; “We are exhausted but so happy and so very proud of everyone for presenting Cape Town as an inspiring contender for World Design Capital 2014. We are all holding thumbs for October when the winning city will be announced.”

All images by Bruce Sutherland, City of Cape Town

The Volunteer Wildfire Services is a non-profit fire-fighting organisation, which receives no government funding, so they rely on corporate sponsors and responsible citizens to support them in their fight against the rampant seasonal fires of the Western Cape.

The judges will be keeping a low profile on their whirlwind tour of several sites and significant design-led projects. Says host and Cape Town Partnership MD Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, “This is a big moment for Africa – being the first time that a city from the continent has made it through as a finalist for World Design Capital.

“We hope to inspire the judges with our innovation, passion and humanity. Cape Town has an important story to be told; the tale of a city that is using design to overcome our historic problems of disconnection,  inequality and urban sprawl to create a more inclusive and liveable city for all citizens. Our bid theme is ‘Live Design. Transform Life’ and we will be demonstrating to the judges how Africa is leading the way when it comes to socially responsive design. ”

As part of a full city welcome, Cape Town will decked out in celebratory yellow – the official colour of the city’s World Design Capital campaign – starting with Table Mountain. Watch the mountain glow, for the first time ever in yellow light, from 18h00 on the night of Wednesday 20 July. The trunks of 100 trees in Heerengracht Street will be wrapped in World Design Capital colours, and a fleet of Green Cabs’ low carbon emission vehicles will be going temporarily yellow, as they ferry the judges around town.

Join Cape Town by flying your World Design Capital colours and go yellow wherever you are:

Visit www.capetown2014.co.za, download your World Design Capital button, and use it in the spirit of the city’s bid – on your email signature, your company website, your personal blog. Then join the Cape Town for World Design Capital 2014 group on Facebook and the Creative Cape Town Twitter feed.

Cape Town will know in October 2011 whether it has been named World Design Capital 2014, an accolade that brings with it international exposure, creative exchange and further development through design.

“With seven sales days to go, the combined Main and Fringe attendance is up firmly over both the 2010 and 2009 figures,” Festival CEO Tony Lankester said.

Since 2010 was a slightly unusual year, spanning 15 days and running during the FIFA World Cup, the Festival is also using comparisons with the 2009 event in its’ analysis.

“It is interesting that the overall figure is being driven by extremely strong sales for Main productions, which have leapt about 50% since last year,” Lankester said. “We saw, in the first half of the Festival, very good houses across the board.”

Main productions which were 100% sold out in the first few days of the Festival include Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Music Ben Schoeman’s two piano recitals; Cape Town City Ballet’s Swan Lake; Mark Bank’s two performances in the Transnet Great Hall, Iris Brunette, Lloyd Webber and Friends and the Gala Concert.

“A couple of talks on the ThinkFest programme were also sold out – including Justice Albie Sachs, Richard Cock and Denis Beckett,” Lankester said.

A few performances scheduled for the second half of the Festival – including Sandra Prinsloo’s performance in ‘night Mother, and the Irish company Fidget Feet’s Madam Silk – are already sold out. “Apart from those productions, though, there is plenty on offer for lovers of theatre, jazz, classical music and dance,” Lankester said.

Turning to the Fringe, the Festival has announced that sales are largely the same as last year, but that this may be driven largely by structural changes to the Festival “In 2010 we introduced the Arena which includes many productions that, traditionally, would have appeared on the Fringe and which, now, are included in the Main figures,” Lankester explained.

Having noted that, there have been many Fringe productions that have enjoyed sold out performances in the first half of the Festival – including last year’s hits Big Boys Don’t Dance, London Road and the newest installment of the ‘Raiders’ franchise, called Rocket Raiders.

Festival management expect that the momentum of sales will continue into the second half of this year’s event. “We are expecting that some of the drawcards on the programme like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Selaelo Selota, theatre productions like The History Boys and Shakespeare’s R&J as well as dance productions such as Lovaffair are going to keep public interest high through to the end of the Festival,” Lankester said. “We’ve also had a large number of Fringe productions that have been named as Standard Bank Ovation Award winners, and we are starting to see audiences gravitate to them.”

In addition, the introduction of the ‘50% Fringe’ for the last day of the Festival, which will see all Fringe tickets selling at a 50% discount, is expected to draw additional crowds from Grahamstown and elsewhere in the Eastern Cape as daytrippers make the most of the extra Festival day.

“We’ve had great support, excellent houses and reasonable, although slightly chilly, weather so far,” Lankester said. “We look forward to a great second half and, with thousands of performances still to come, we encourage those who aren’t here to make a snap decision to join us for a few more days of AMAZ!NG.”

The poster campaign featured musical greats, Keith Richard, Amy Winehouse and Michael Jackson, which used the art of music to tell their stories.

Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi Cape Town, Sammy-Jane Thom says, “The objective of the campaign was to leave the customer with a strong desire to buy the biography.” She adds, “We found the most interesting way for us to do this was to use the art of music to tell their stories.”

“We did this by transforming the musical notes on sheet music into the story of each of their lives through visually arresting illustration.” Thom continues, “The attention to detail in each piece was paramount and each scene had to be a rewarding experience.”

Thom explains that, the styles used in each of the illustrations were chosen specifically to match the genre of music: Keith’s rock n roll genre was matched with a Stedman style, the jazz-blues style of Amy was an iconic yesteryear theme and for the King of Pop Michael we used a neon and Pop-art style.”

“The final output of the creative showed visually striking pieces of artwork which, ultimately showed some of the greatest muso’s life achievements in one ‘sheet of music’,” concludes Thom.

Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana (MD Cape Town Partnership), Patricia de Lille (Executive Mayor), Andrew Boraine (Chief Executive Cape Town Partnership) and Helen Zille (Premier) with the World Design Capital 2014 Bid Book. Photographer: Anita Reed

Cape Town today received the welcome news that the city has been short-listed for World Design Capital 2014. From a team of 56 hopefuls, Cape Town now stands alongside just two other world cities; Dublin and Bilbao in the race to earn the World Design Capital title, which will be announced in October 2011.

Cape Town is the first city in Africa to come this close to being named a World Design Capital, a designation which bears prestigious status. The title is awarded biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) to cities that are dedicated to using design for social, cultural and economic development.

The announcement is pivotal for Cape Town’s reputation as a destination that has adopted design for transformation and social cohesion. There is a strong connection between good design and a city’s economic growth, development and social inclusion program. Well-designed cities are best placed to address issues of competitiveness, climate change, growth, social cohesion and mobility. Design as a principle for changing lives began with the end of apartheid and, increasingly, has become a guiding philosophy in the repositioning of Cape Town as a sustainable city, committed to a journey to improve the quality of life for all its citizens.

With predecessors such as Seoul, Korea (2010) and Helsinki, Finland (2012), proving that design can in fact transform lives, Cape Town’s status as a top three contender shifts the city onto a new world platform and into a new era.

The creation of the World Design Capital Bid has, in itself, succeeded in putting design firmly on the City Development Agenda through identifying numerous tangible examples of how design-led interventions and planning can have a positive impact on lives.

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille congratulated the City of Cape Town for being short-listed.

“If we win the World Design Capital 2014 title it will be great for South Africa. It will help build Cape Town and the rest of the province’s profile as a leading centre of creativity. Our creative industries have become a sector with great potential, which is why we are currently developing the Cape Town Innovation District that will showcase and foster design excellence in the future. We wish the City well for the final stage of the competition. Winning this title will help drive economic growth and job creation, which is one of the provincial government’s most important strategic objectives.”

The Cape Town Partnership and the City of Cape Town will now host a delegation of World Design Capital 2014 judges in the city towards the end of July 2011. An important stage in the process, this is when the content of the Bid Book and the city’s priorities, in terms of design as a tool for social transformation, will tread its proving ground. The official announcement of the World Design Capital 2014 winner will take place on 26 October 2011.

These are some of the 47 objects that make up the Cape Craft & Design Institute’s annual Handmade Exhibition Collection. The Collection, selected from 215 entries, was unveiled to the public at the Design Indaba Expo, which ran from 25 to 27 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The Handmade Collection, now in its third year, is the premier showcase of the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI), which is a Section 21 company set up ten years ago by the Province and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to promote and grow the craft and design sector.

The selection panel was made up of individuals from various arts, culture and media institutions, who looked for superb design, excellent craftsmanship and a high degree of innovation,  said the CCDI’s Communications manager Marjorie Naidoo.

“The focus is on only the very best handmade objects and we are confident that this outstanding collection will prove the relevance, creativity and collectability of handmade products. As this exhibition encourages producers and designer makers to push their creative boundaries, new marketable products often flow from this event.”

This year’s collection includes works by many established craft producers and designer makers  such as ceramicist Hennie Meyer and fabric designer Jane Solomon, who submitted a seat upholstered in a new fabric inspired by indigenous birds.

Jane Solomon: Indigenous birds upholstered seat. Image by Eric Miller

There were also newcomers such as City Varsity student Amy Rusch who made a crown of wire, cotton thread and recycled magazine paper – “a playful object made for the fun of stitching.”

Amy Rusch: wire, cotton thread and recycled magazine paper crown. Image by Eric Miller

‘Up-cycling’ and ‘repurposing’ is  a common theme,  with winning entries including  a large bottle cap and wire basket by Phanny Mangwiro,  and a cupboard made from antique wooden printers’ trays by Kate Thompson of Recreate.

Recreate: cupboard made from antique wooden printers’ trays. Image by Eric Miller

There is even an evening suit embroidered in African designs and decorated with appliquéd images, recycled buttons and plastic. The suit was inspired by traditional Cockney pearly kings and queens, whose clothes are decorated with thousands of pearl buttons.  This was designed by Monique Fagan, produced by Lizzie Ngwenya of the Leechar Homes craft collective in Heideveld, with skills training funded by the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group (KEAG).

Some of the more unusual items include a mechanical head made from stoneware clay “showing the cogs expressing the inner workings of the mind”, according to its creator Alessandro Pappada, and colourful skulls embroidered on felt by Nicola de Jager of Calavera.

Lifestyle and homeware items include finely wrought jewellery, lighting, a merino wool and mohair handbag (Bridget Henderson of cowgirlblues), ceramics, exquisite hand-blown vases (Elizabeth Lacey of Red Hot Glass), a large wirework chair by Willard Musarurwa and maple and rosewood candlesticks by Bert Parker.

Red Hot Glass: hand-blown vases. Image by Eric Miller

Orders can be placed with the craft producers directly, or through the CCDI.

The Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI)
75 Harrington Street, East City, Cape Town

Phone: +27 21 461 1488 – Fax: +27 21 461 1228 www.capecraftanddesign.org.za