Call for applications: ACT Tlholo Project in SA

The project is being run under the theme Uncovering Solutions 2020, and seeks to recognise the innate ability of creative minds to find innovative solutions to problems and to overcome the obstacles at hand with ingenuity and wit. It also intends to highlight and encourage the sharing of practical solutions to the challenges faced by arts and culture practitioners, particularly in the rural, remote and under-resourced areas of South Africa. 

Who should apply?

• Solution-driven arts and culture professionals.
• Arts and culture professionals who have been working in their fields for a minimum of three years and who earn at least part of their income from their art.
• Community arts and culture leaders.

How to apply

Applicants should complete an online application form via the ACT official website here. The submission deadline is 28 October. Selected participants will receive training during the facilitation and will be supplied with a data and travel stipend.

The participants must:

• Be available for online training from 16 to 21 November.
• Be willing to participate in online discussions.
• Have access to resources to record and submit data (such as a laptop or computer and cellphone).
• Be residing and working in South Africa.
• Be over 18 years old.

The ACT Tlholo project aims to achieve the following:

• Provide a platform that highlights artist-driven solutions.
• Facilitate conversations and the sharing of ideas and solutions.
• Encourage experimentation (presentation of new practices) and feedback (relevance and applicability to context).
• Leverage the network of arts and culture practitioners around the country to share solutions and develop solution-based thinking.
• Provide means of accessing the tools, stories and best-practice resources generated through the ACT Tlholo Project for arts practitioners working in remote, rural and under-resourced areas in South Africa.
• Inspire more resilient and self-reliant arts practitioners with creative and sustainable solutions.

ACT wants to start a new conversation, underpinned by the concept of radical self-reliance. The four phases of the project will involve the following:

• Profiling artists and organisations who have developed solutions and best practice.
• Creating capacity for the sharing of expert knowledge and business models with and for artists.
• Creating and making available on the ACT website podcasts based on the conversations.
• Creating and making available resources, including videos and guides, to accompany the podcasts.