Itsweletse Creative arts

1.          Organization background

 

Itsweletse creative art is an art organization that acknowledges and recognizes arts and culture as a powerful tool to engage communities in various levels of a social change. The organization engages dialogues that inspire community participation. Itsweletse shares information about heritage preservation, creative arts community development and artistic mobilization. At Itsweletse, we encourage diverse cultural exchange programmes to promote social cohesion, capacity building and leadership development.

 

Through the engagement of arts and networking with Sibikwa Art Centre on capacity building and arts administration training, Itsweletse creative arts was established to focus on arts development and training and initiatives. The organization welcomes more partnership of relevant arts organizations and private sector which mainly focus on the promotion of art in rural communities.

We engaged in partnership with schools such as Blompoort Primary School, Mapula Primary School, Ngwato A Mphela Secondary School and various art centres in Sekhukhune District Municipality to pursue the mission which is to promote quality arts education, audience development, vocational training, and job creation in our immediate communities and extend to other municipalities in Limpopo province. We are keen in preserving and protecting the existing indigenous knowledge and cultural practices.

We design collaborations with the communities through performance shows, dialogues on issues that affect young and upcoming creative workers in an attempt to unlock their potential.

2.    Artists in schools programme

 The artist in schools programme is an intersection of community organizations, municipalities and departments to encourage skilled, professional artists to plough back to our schools their multi-layered journeys from the field. In collaboration with our local schools, Itsweletse implemented artist in schools programs which involves deployment of arts facilitators in 3 schools in our community and sufficient to highlight that negotiations are in the works to extend the program and introduce artist-in-residence to other schools across the circuits of Sekhukhune District.

The artist in schools focuses on:

 

●      Performing arts activities in music, drama, dance, theatre,

●      Visual art and craft project

●      Art classes and lesson plans

●      Manual development

●      Indigenous knowledge

 

 During the course of their tenure at the school, artists will be involved in developing a set of creative interventions within the school environment which includes:

●      Impact positively on the physical and organizational environment of the school

●      Transfer skills to creative educators and facilitators in schools

●      Work closely with partners and education management to support the implementation of the arts and culture curriculum

NB: Schools will be selected in partnership with our various stakeholders.

 

3.          Target Audience

The programme will focus on the marginalized youth, learners on the early childhood from schools, school management, community and organizations which have interest in the arts. The project will also strengthen collaboration between artist, schools, organizations, private sectors, municipalities, departments and community members to ensure that it attract and grow the diverse cultural community of different ages.