This year, as part of the ACT | UJ Conference programme, BASA Hatchery Breakaways is set to offer a strong interactive and engaging element at the two-day learning experience.
“We are delighted yet again to be partnering in the annual ACT | UJ Conference. This year BASA is proud to present the Hatchery Session. We believe that this session will provide opportunities for learning and sharing staying true to our vision in creating sustainable and equitable relationships between business and the arts,” says Michelle Constant, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).
Prior to the start of the #creativeintersections conference, which will be presented at the UJ Arts Centre on 16 and 17 March, attendees have the opportunity to form a group and arrive at the conference with an idea, solution and/or a working collaboration that could extend beyond the conference.
Delegates will form smaller groups during the brainstorming breakaways which will be presented in three follow-on sessions, collectively totalling three hours. Groups may be as large as participants wish but should not consist of fewer than four members. Concepts can take any form but they must combine disciplines. While having a pre-planned group is encouraged, delegates who do not have a pre-conceived concept or formed collective will be placed in a group during the conference.
“One of the incredibly valuable aspects of these sessions is that groups will have access to ‘connectors’. This is a group of specialists from a range of industries that will be available to offer groups input in the process of conceptualising innovative projects or solutions,” says Pieter Jacobs, CEO of the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT).
“Connectors will include specialists from inside and outside the creative industries, including IT engineers, scientists, legal, business and finance experts, as well as architects and researchers working in the field of interdisciplinarity,” he adds.
Among the ‘connectors’ is marketing guru Michael Rubenstein, multi-disciplinary artist Willemijn Schellekens, architect and gallerist Jandre Pieters and serial entrepreneur Abed Tau, together with legal experts from Adams & Adams.
During the BASA Hatchery Breakaways participants will gain practical experience building a project and working as a collective, leaving the session with a personalised project proposal and a signed agreement among group members.
Groups will receive:
- an ideas generator kit to help stimulate conversation and spark ideas;
- a standard project proposal template; and
- a basic contract.
During the Pitch Perfect ‘battle’ session at the conference, a representative of delegate groups will have the opportunity to pitch their idea, permitted it aligns with the criteria of an implementation grant made available by the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT). Interdisciplinary projects or solutions of which phase one could be implemented with a grant of R80 000, and within a 12-month period, will be invited to present a 3-minute pitch to an adjudication panel.
BASA Hatchery Breakaway groups are not limited to these grant criteria and are free to devise projects or solutions of any scale, but would not be eligible to pitch for these grants should it not comply with the criteria.
Six projects will be identified and announced after the conference. The shortlisted projects will be invited to take the second step in the process of acquiring support or investment, and will have the opportunity to do a 10-minute project presentation to the panel of adjudicators at the first post-conference Creatives in Conversation session on 30 March 2016.
The six shortlisted projects will receive professional guidance through an incubation programme, sponsored by the Kingdom of the Netherlands and implemented by the Cultural Development Trust. This platform will offer support in the form of contact sessions with a list of varying mentors, and help sustain and aid the successful transformation of each idea into reality.
The ACT | UJ Arts & Culture Conference is presented by the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) and UJ Arts & Culture in partnership with the Department of Arts & Culture’s Mzansi Golden Economy Programme, Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) and the SAMRO Foundation, with support from the National Arts Council, Nedbank Arts Affinity, Creative Feel Magazine and the British Council’s Connect ZA programme.
Author: Gilly Hemphill
Website: http://www.thefamousidea.co.za/
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