Ever since the pandemic began, drama schools around the world have been plagued with the question of what they are now preparing students for in their education. A response to this also leads to the question: How is the pandemic changing the way in which arts organizations function today? At the 22nd conversation of Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2), we looked at what features of arts organizing can we carry through the tunnel of this pandemic. How can we replicate in future a more sustainable, healthier formation of it?
We explored this through the lens of arts organizing in South Africa with Rucera Seethal, who is currently the artistic director of National Arts Festival (Makhanda, South Africa). Seethal reflected on her experience of working at Chimurenga, a pan-African magazine of art, ideas and politics, and Swiss Arts Council’s Pro Helvetia in Johannesburg.
At Chimurenga, she found a mutable and multifunctional space, where a lot of the time they had to carve out ways, which didn’t exist, to do projects they wanted to. Seethal cultivated this approach as art director and production manager and wondered if this can be established as a mode of practice in future.
Seethal also spoke about funding artists. She shared that going into the future, she hopes and imagines a shift from funding individual artists to funding a network or mycelium of artists to build a healthier and more sustainable creative ecosystem.
STAY TUNED! We will be publishing a long-form article about the talk and the ideas/themes that emerged during the session on our blog in the coming weeks.
Compiled and written by Phalguni Vittal Rao
Access the entire session on our YouTube channel:
