Category Archives: Success Stories

Founded by Ms Elinor Sisulu, PUKU (a Northern Sotho word for book), is a digital reading promotion and book development organisation to promote the reading and writing of children’s books in indigenous languages to preserve these languages. PUKU first received funding from the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) through the Art Organisation Support […]

Pan Afrikan Series Comix 2085 is one of the most innovative art projects that is breaking the odds of illiteracy amongst our youth through comic books. This project encourages literacy by imparting historical knowledge in a series of comic books making reading fun. Last year (2022), the Pan Afrikan Series Comix 2085 was successfully funded […]

Bongani Dlamini-Ngcobo, also known as DJ Bongz, is a well-known South African DJ and entertainer from a peri-rural township called KwaNdengezi, west of Durban. He came up with a dance called Gwara Gwara, which took the world by storm. He shoot to international stardom when American artist, Rihanna, performed his Gwara Gwara dance. In 2015, […]

Everyone would agree that when we think about opera music, we tend to picture massive concerts filled with lights, glitz, and glamour and less of the work that is involved behind the scenes to produce the final piece. Meet Mr Xolane Marman an opera director by profession and the founder of the Opera Recitals Unmuted […]

Nomsa Manaka is a well-known Soweto-born dancer, choreographer and actress who runs The Nomsa Manaka Dance Studio operating from Funda Centre in Diepkloof. She initially sought to become Africa’s best ballerina. She arrived in America in 1996 at The Dance Theatre of Haarlem on a scholarship, to pursue her dream. The excitement was thick in […]

Meet Refiloe Diutlwileng, a 52-year-old craft artist who is transforming trash into a thriving jewellery business and a skills development and training centre. Based in the township of Kanana, Klerksdorp, Refiloe is a qualified Maths and Science teacher who decided to leave her full-time career in teaching to peruse her passion for craft art. Refiloe’s […]

Remembering those who went before us, the dance movement pays tribute to all those who have passed during this pandemic. May they rest in peace and we are thankful for the time we spent with them.

For the past seven years The Concerts SA Mobility Fund, a project funded by the NAC, has supported music touring across the Southern African region. In 2020, the cross-continental initiative in partnership with the Norwegian Embassy, SAMRO and IKS Cultural Consulting reconfigured its model to meet the escalating need for online content and broadcasting by […]

On the 16th and 17th of June 2021, the youth showcased My Home Town – a play written and produced by one of Sasolburg’s rising stars, Kedibone Motlhasedi. The showcase was poignant in terms of its scheduling during the period commemorating youth month and the ambitions of the youth of 1976 in fighting for a democratic […]

In the Western Cape, the PROUDLY MACASSAR POTTERY PROJECT (proudly funded by the National Arts Council, through the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP)) is a social enterprise that seeks to upskill, employ and incubate unschooled youth at their township-based, employee-owned ceramic factory. From a small, two-room studio, bouncing with activity, a few years ago, Macassar […]