stories of cape town
A developing set of stories about culture, cultural policy, and sustainable transformation in Cape Town.
Cape Town's Two City Tale of Culture
Design and the Divided City: Culture and the transformative potential of Creativity. Part one in a series on Cape Town's journey to becoming World Design Capital 2014.
The Missed Opportunity: World Design Capital 2014
WDC14 had notable successes, but ultimately did not achieve its primary objective to use design as a tool for transformation in Cape Town. Why did this happen?
Working Together: Cape Town's Bid for World Design Capital 2014
The power of networks and a tight deadline. The conditions and the processes behind Cape Town's successful bid for World Design Capital 2014.
Culture and Transformation in Cape Town
An introduction to a series of articles looking at the role of culture in the urban and social transformation of cities. Focussing on Cape Town: a reflection from the personal perspective of a cultural activist.
BLAC to the Future
Looking at the discourse building, culture initiative, BLAC, and its projects to further dialogue, publishing and advocacy in a divided Cape Town (1998-2003). How have things shifted since?
Cultural Space Making and South African Cities
Drawing on two Cape Town case studies, we look at how municipalities could support its communities and the arts by providing "cultural spaces".
Before the Water Runs out: The Challenges Facing Cape Town
Cape Town's looming water crisis is an opportunity to explore participatory democracy, as a way to solve complex problems together.
The Peoples Cultural Policy
Africa's first local cultural policy was an exercise in participatory planning, drawing on the optimism of cultural bodies in Cape Town, who had been denied access previously to use their voice.
Cape Town's Cultural Policy 2014: A Plan Frustrated?
Telling the story of the development of the Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy 2014 - the only existing municipal cultural policy in Africa.
The Memorial as a Tool for Dialogue
We explore how monuments to conflicted pasts can be turned into opportunities for constructive dialogue and societal change?
MEMORIALS AND RECONCILIATION IN CAPE TOWN
Can working with memory and memorialisation further reconciliation? An examination of projects in Cape Town.
CRAFTING CRISIS: HOW THE STATE UNDERMINES CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
Can a transformed South African creative economy ecosystem come to being without state investment in industry support bodies?
THE PERILS OF NAME CHANGES … AND ALTERNATIVES
Name changing of public spaces in resource tense, racialised societies? What are the alternatives for more productive dialogue, towards real transformation?
CAPE TOWN'S SHRINKING PUBLIC SPHERE?
Is Cape Town’s diverse, democratic public sphere shrinking and if so in what way? What possibilities do new cultural spaces offer? What actions may be needed to improve the situation?
HIP HOP AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN CAPE TOWN
Can cultural projects targeting at-risk youth effect sustainable socio-economic transformation in cities, and if so how?