Artistiek talent combineren met zakelijk talent ? Het blijft een moeilijke combinatie. En toch is het net dat wat de Cultural Development Trust in Zuid-Afrika probeert te doen. Theatergezelschappen, muzikanten, dansers en andere artiesten kunnen bij de organisatie terecht voor allerlei opleidingen in cultuurmanagement. Allemaal op maat van de organisatie of artiest die bij hen aanklopt.

“Sinds onze oprichting in 2001 hebben we al meer dan 1000 organisaties en 1000 individuele artiesten bijgestaan op zakelijk gebied,” vertelt de directeur Maria Kint. “Meestal gaat het over heel praktische trainingen in vier domeinen : projectmanagement, entrepreneurschap, organisatieontwikkeling en financieel management.

“Mijn collega’s zijn bezige bijen. Ze geven tussen de 80 en 120 cursussen per jaar. Met aangepast trainingmateriaal, inclusief een business spel, bieden mijn collega’s vorming op maat aan in heel Sub-Sahara-Afrika. Zonder de steun van Africalia was dit allemaal niet mogelijk geweest. En soms leiden onze cursussen tot verrassende resultaten : zo gebeurt het meer dan eens dat artiesten na onze cursus beslissen om terug naar school te gaan om een bredere opleiding te beginnen of af te maken.”

“Met Africalia heeft de Cultural Development Trust een belangrijke partner gevonden die bereid is om niet alleen in creatieve ontwikkeling te investeren, maar evenzeer in cultuurmanagement en administratieve vaardigheden. Maar,” besluit ze, “een artiest moet niet alleen weten hoe hij of zij zichzelf in de markt moet zetten. Hij moet vooral een goed product hebben om te verkopen. En dat moet je leren.”

Lees de hele artikel hier beneden : Transforming the arts through training door Melanie Jackson of klik hier om de artikel in pdf te downloaden.

The Cultural Development Trust : Transforming the arts through training

The Cultural Development Trust (CDT) began in 2001 as the Cultural Helpdesk, with the goal of assisting both emerging and established artists. Individuals and groups had the opportunity to receive assistance and training in a range of sectors : management, finance and administration in the arts and cultural sector. In 2002, it was formally registered as The Cultural Development Trust.

CDT is an accredited training provider for the CATHSSETA (Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority – a body set up by the South African government to facilitate the provision of accredited vocational training) and offers the Arts and Culture Administration Learnership, level 4. Director, Maria Kint, explains that since its inception and with the help of organisations like Africalia, the organisation has assisted more than 1,000 organisations, and thousands of individuals, mainly through practical, hands-on training that offers learning opportunities in four broad areas :

The Learnership Programme, which offers learners a unique combination of project administration competencies, human resource management skills and business enterprise skills, to successfully administer arts and culture projects. The Entrepreneurship Programme enables participants to develop, conduct and manage sustainable and successful businesses and also receive ongoing support in the form of mentoring.

Organisational Capacilty Building Programmes and Workshops are tailor-made training programmes that also provide ongoing support. CDT also facilitates a Mentorship Programme that enables the improvement of beneficiaries’ financial management skills, teaching them to efficiently administer funds and accurately report to the satisfaction of the donor. Maria explains that the training material is presented in a modularised format, which enables customization to suit the needs of individual beneficiary organisations. One of the positive side-effects, says Maria, is that these training programmes sometimes lead participants right back to school – accessing education and broadening their personal horizons.

Courses on offer include : finance, project management, time management, running a business/NPO, fundraising and income generation. CDT has also developed an entrepreneurship game and booklet, which helps to demystify the concept of running a small business, as this can be a very intimidating experience. Staff are kept busy, as CDT averages 80 to 120 interventions each year, ranging from workshops to mentoring, and the organisation is active in sub-Saharan Africa.

It is their strong links to a network of training institutions in the arts and performance platforms like the Dance Umbrella, a renowned South African annual contemporary dance festival, that set CDT apart from other organisations with similar goals. The role that CDT has played, supporting individuals and organisations to achieve their goals, has been invaluable and was recognised at the 25th anniversary of the Dance Umbrella in 2013, where Maria had the opportunity to speak of the amazing Africalia-funded Creative Industries Dance Development project happening in six centres around the country, in impoverished communities.

Maria spoke of “human development”, through this Africalia programme, which focuses on teaching aspiring artists to understand the business of dance by skilling them with arts management modules as well as the choreographic ones – offering development opportunities that would otherwise be nothing more than a dream to these youngsters.

The event also offered a platform to Alfred Hinkel, former artistic director of Jazzart Dance Theatre and now working in Okiep, Northern Cape, also as part of DanceXChange. His speech vividly painted a picture of how the young people in Okiep are finding new outlets through dance. With high unemployment rates and the consequent social ills that this brings, there is little hope amongst the youth – until you switch on the music and give them the opportunity to lose themselves in the hypnotic siren call to move.

Alfred revealed the talent that has been uncovered in the Northern Cape, but cautioned that there is a great need to channel and foster this talent. His take-home comment, though, was that this project aims to create a blueprint to enable similar projects to be rolled out across the country ; and with the support and enthusiasm of organisations like Africalia, this can become a reality.

Maria explains that in Africalia, CDT has found a donor who is prepared to fund training in management and administrative skills as well as in the creative development. She says that it is not enough to know how to market yourself, you have to have a product to sell – and this is not something that we are born knowing, it is something that we have to learn.
Melanie Jackson