A selection of Johannesburg’s young creative students will be showcasing their extensive talents during the annual CIT:Y Festival, taking place at Museum Africa until 31 October 2009.
Sponsored by the City of Johannesburg: Directorate: Arts, Culture and Heritage, Arts Alive and the MTN SA Foundation, who is the principal sponsor, the CIT:Y Festival 2009 is offering more than R130 000 in bursaries for standout students who are studying towards tertiary qualifications in the arts and creative industries at the City’s educational institutions.
The initiative, aims to reward excellence across a range of creative disciplines, and to provide students in the visual and performing arts with further motivation to make their mark.
This year, students are competing in five categories: Craft and Design; Dance; Film and Broadcast; Music; and Visual Arts. More than 70 students have entered the competition, and several will also be showcasing their creative work at Museum Africa in Newtown. Curated by Bie Venter, this exhibition is open to the public during October and entrance is free. The wildly inventive works on display are sure to challenge, provoke and edify the observer, and includes photography, sculpture, paintings, prints, experimental video arts and interactive pieces.
Institutions taking part in CIT:Y Festival ’09 are: AFDA, Artist Proof Studios, Big Fish School of Digital Filmmaking, Damelin (Bramley), Greenside Design Centre, the Imbali Visual Literacy Project, the Market Photo Workshop, Moving Into Dance Mophatong, NEMISA, University of Johannesburg (FADA), Vuyani Dance Theatre, and Wits School of the Arts.
Seven bursaries will be awarded, four of them by MTN SA Foundation, including a R20 000 grant in each category to recognise, encourage and nurture talented students and enable them to continue their studies in 2010.
There is also an Arts Alive discretionary grant, as well as the overall prize of a R30 000 Careers Bursary that will give a final-year student a financial kick-start in their budding career in the creative industries. Runners-up in the various categories will receive prizes of cellphones and art book hampers from MTN SA Foundation.
