CONNECT TO CREATIVE WEEK FOR AN URBAN ADVENTURE

A week of celebrating creativity, innovation and culture lies ahead as Creative Cape Town’s Creative Week (14 -22 September) and the Loeries Awards (16-22 September) kick off in the Mother City.

Encouraging the public to “Turn the City Inside Out”, Creative Week is a crowd-sourced programme of events, meetings, talks, open studios and exhibitions that grows and evolves as members of Cape Town’s creative and innovative community add their events to the calendar. Ultimately, the Creative Week calendar is the go-to for all things creative and a companion to visitors to the Loeries events.

Some of the highlights of this year’s Creative Week calendar include:

• Curator Shani Judes is organising a series of public art experiences that will explore various types of public art, from the CBD to the Cape Flats, and Khayelitsha.
• As part of City Explorations, a series of tours happening in collaboration with Creative Cape Town during Creative Week, City-Unseen will host Faces of Cape Town, a walking tour of the historic strip of St. Georges Mall, including prominent public squares, from 3:30pm – 5pm on the 16^th September. Participants will meet at St. Georges Cathedral, at 5 Wale Street. There is no cover charge but bookings are essential.
• From September 16-20, Twenty Fifty, the East City’s newest co-working environment, is offering individuals and small teams a space to work from for the week. It is situated right upstairs from Truth Coffee Roastery, at 36 Buitenkant Street, 1^st Floor.
• Join photographer Andrew Brauteseth for an intimate photowalk of Cape Town’s CBD as part of City Explorations, a series of tours happening in collaboration with Creative Cape Town during Creative Week. There is no cover charge but bookings are essential. Participants are also required to bring along their own camera.
• Shoot the streets with photographer Ed Suter as part of City Explorations, a series of tours happening in collaboration with Creative Cape Town during Creative Week. Ed will discuss the process of creating his book Sharp Sharp and how he creates a visual narrative about the city through the energy of its streets and then lead a photo walkabout and workshop of Cape Town’s CBD. There is no cover charge but bookings are essential. Participants are required to bring their own camera.
• As part of City Explorations, City-Unseen will host a walking tour exploring the Foreshore in terms of its current state in the face of future developments, from 1pm – 4pm on the 18^th September. Participants will meet at City Lodge, at 101 Buitengracht Street. There is no cover charge for the tour but bookings are essential. Participants are required to bring along R 30 for the canal ride.
• Bicycle movement, #moonlightmass, will hold a special Creative Week edition on the 19^th September.
• After #moonlightmass On Thursday, September 19, Shnit International Shortfilmfestival will present Cycle Cinema. Film screenings will happen at 10pm – late, after the bicycle ride, at Greenmarket Methodist Church.
• Presented by Cape Town Design Network and Creative Cape Town, Design Dialogues: The Business of Design explores trends and ways to aid sustainable productivity by differentiating themselves for a global competitive edge. It takes place on the 19^th September, at 6:30pm, at The German Club, Roodehoek Terrace, Hope Street, Gardens, and is a free event.
• Creative Cape Town’s Meet the Maker events will offer a glimpse into the spaces, personalities and processes of many different types of local creatives through a series of studio visit experiences.
• International Park (ing) day is on the 20^th September, and Capetonians can look forward to more parklets popping up around town – a legacy from the first ever parklet in Cape Town that launched during Creative Week 2011 when parklets transformed designated city parking spaces into temporary urban mini-parks. Read more about Park (ing) Day here: http://parkingday.org
  • Over the weekend of 13 to 15 September, Xanele and Jeremy Puren will be transforming the brick façade of the building at 99 Harrington Street into a bold and colourful artwork depicting a fisherman: representing the connection between this part of the city to the harbour and the ocean.
  • From Monday 16 September to Saturday 22 September, Falko will be working on a multi-storey piece at 75 Harrington Street (on the Canterbury Street side of the building). According to Falko his artwork will depict the marriage between graffiti art and street art.

The Creative Week programme will continue to grow and is still open to receive events, meetings, gatherings.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN EVENT

Anyone wanting to add their event to the programme should also do so through the website. There are several categories:

• Learn – events that expand the mind from lectures to launches
• Play – fun happenings that defy conventional categorisation
• Move – activities that get people on the go – whether walking, cycling or doing yoga
• See – anything visual goes such as film screenings, street art  interventions or pop-up exhibitions
• Do – events that require active participation like classes or networking events
• Hear – all things auditory from opera to spoken word

Cape Town Partnership CEO, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana serves on the Loeries, judging panel this year for the fastest growing category, the Ubuntu Awards. The category, which recognises environmentally and socially sustainable brands, has seen an increase in entries of 80% compared to the previous year. “The injection of energy and events we get in September is always a reminder that Cape Town is fuelled by innovation and creativity; take the time for an adventure through urban life this Creative Week.”