The Centre for the Creative Arts (CCA) is an inter-disciplinary hub in the School of the Arts in the College of Humanities at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. The Centre plays host to four festivals which over many years have built a strong international profile for artistic excellence and for how the arts are engaged to advance social change and to strengthen South Africa’s constitutional democracy. The four festivals are:
- Time of the Writer Festival
- JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Festival
- Durban International Film Festival
- Poetry Africa.
Each of the Festivals are also significant contributors to the cultural economy of eThekwini and to the province of Kwazulu-Natal. The festivals have since inception been sustained through various partnerships.
To be relevant for Cultural Leadership in the 21st century the 25-year old Centre for the Creative Arts continues to redefine and reposition its role as a dynamic space in the University’s knowledge generation value chain by being:
* A teaching & research space
* A hub for seminars, workshops, festivals
* A partner for residencies and international exchanges
* A platform for academics, creative practitioners and audiences.
The Centre’s leadership role in presenting festivals, seminars, workshops and public events provide platforms for celebrations of the arts as well as being a platform for provocation and social change. The Centre for the Creative Arts is a champion for democracy, human rights, social justice, creative education and access to the arts for all.
The festivals presented by the Centre for the Creative Arts boldly engage with transformation, constitutional democracy, human rights, social justice, creative education and promoting access to the arts for all. Within a University landscape the festivals are catalysts for disruption and change. They support innovation in research about the arts by academics and students; and in practice by artists and society. The festivals present content that is engaging, provocative and challenging; and it articulates and resonates with the University’s community engagement agenda.