SA: ACT announces 2021 Thuthukisani Programme recipients

19 Oct 2021 - 14:25

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) has announced the recipients for its 2021 Thuthukisani Programme to be held in South Africa.

Lucky Mqoboli is among the recipients. Photo: Facebook

The announcement follows an open call by the organisation to arts and culture practitioners in August. The programme is a call to action taken from the Zulu word thuthukisa, meaning ‘to develop’. Thuthukisani addresses the lack of capacity and opportunity for small-to-medium-sized organisations and artists to develop new projects with mentorship, training and investment towards sustained participation in the creative economy.

The ACT Thuthukisani programme is designed to take 63 successful applicants from across South Africa on a holistic and enabling journey to empower them through training and professionalisation. The roll-out will take place in three cycles, inviting applications from three provinces per cycle, with seven selected Thuthukisani participants per province. After thorough training and mentorship, the participants will then pitch their projects for the opportunity to receive monetary investment. Three projects per province will receive cash investments and ongoing mentorship throughout the implementation of their projects.

Applications for Thuthukisani Cycle 1 saw more than 100 arts entrepreneurs from North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo applying for a spot on the programme. The remaining six provinces will be able to apply for the programme in 2022.

“I’m very excited by the level of enthusiasm that was shown in the applications for the ACT Thuthukisani programme,” ACT CEO Marcus Desando said. “The palpable interest for self-directed growth and stability is very encouraging, and we are looking forward to seeing the journey of the participants through Thuthukisani and how they will impact the sustainability of the sector.”

Nedbank head of Group Sponsorships and Cause Marketing Tobie Badenhorst said: “The beauty of the ACT Thuthukisani programme is that it contributes to entrepreneurship and growth in arts and culture initiatives throughout South Africa. This is precisely what ACT sets out to achieve in its goal to professionalise and create a sustainable future for the creative sector countrywide. We are so impressed with the talent from the North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and we cannot wait to see how the successful applicants grow with training and mentorship.”

The successful applicants for Cycle 1 are as follows:

Limpopo