agenda
9 April 2009
The new Gauteng Craft and Design Centre signals an important step in job
creation and economic empowerment, as the creative industries have proved to be
an important driver of Gauteng's economy and hold considerable promise for
future growth.
The Gauteng Creative Mapping Project, a 2008 study commissioned by the
Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, revealed that the
creative industries contribute over R33 billion to the province's economy every
year, and create direct employment for more than 60,000 people.
The design and craft sectors make up a significant proportion of this
figure, and what is especially noteworthy is that 53 percent of the province's
creative workers are women, 47 percent are young people and 15 percent of firms
employ people with disabilities. This comes at a time when unemployment is high
in these groupings, and there is great potential to grow exports and create
jobs especially for rural and historically disadvantaged communities.
Among the study's key findings is that Gauteng creative workers lack access
to capital, and are constrained by high telecommunications costs, as well as
other overheads. More than half the companies that participated in the study
indicated that they needed help with marketing their products and with
expansion.
It is in these areas that the government backed Craft and Design Centre in
Sandton will be especially beneficial providing not only a platform for
creative workers to display their original wares to a cosmopolitan clientele
made up of both local and international shoppers, but also to provide valuable
marketing and promotions support.
The Craft and Design Centre (CDC) Gauteng is a pivotal element in the policy
framework provided by the Gauteng government's 2005 creative industries
development framework and the craft strategic framework (2008).
In giving life to these national and provincial government strategies, the
Craft and Design Centre Gauteng will function at two primary levels. Firstly,
the centre will be a catalyst in developing a viable, market centred craft
sector within Gauteng that draws on the diverse cultural history, creative
energy and innovative capacity of the province. The CDC will ensure that
products reach suitable markets and that appropriate market information reaches
producers.
The centre will also be the ideal place for businesses to view and source
corporate gifts that will have a significant impact on craft and design
businesses. A key part of this is the partnership with the Cape Craft and
Design Institute to establish a branch of gift at the centre, serving as a shop
window to the corporate world and providing manageable and appropriate
opportunities for craft producers, community groups and income generating
projects. The gift team will negotiate and facilitate orders on behalf of
producers to provide gifting and promotional solutions to corporate buyers
The department, in partnership with local government, will launch satellite
centres to service crafters and designers in the communities, working with the
main centre in Sandton. To this end, agreements have been signed with the City
of Johannesburg, Mogale City and Sedibeng, to roll out the regional
centres.
These will also help give effect to the core programmes of the craft
strategic framework among them the product development programme, an enterprise
development programme (in partnership with Gauteng Enterprise Propellor (GEP),
a training programme, a market access programme, a communications and sector
promotion programme, the gift corporate gift warehouse (providing socially
responsible gifting), the Gauteng Craft and Design Resource Centre and ongoing
research and development.
The centre opens up vast opportunities for black economic empowerment, job
creation, poverty alleviation and small business development. Through this
initiative and other regional hubs, the Gauteng Provincial Government aims to
improve the crafters' access to markets in other words, help them to find
buyers for their wares as well as focus on skills development and on enhancing
their design and innovation concepts. An exciting initiative is the development
of a corporate gift warehouse.
At the launch of the centre on 9 April 2009, MEC Barbara Creecy (Sport,
Arts, Culture and Recreation) pointed out that craft is an important part of
the huge growth of the global creative economy.
"This is in indeed an exciting time for us to open this centre.
Provincial government is supportive of this initiative and together with our
partners, we are realising a dream that has taken years to come to fruition.
This centre is for the sector and we extend a welcome to our partners in the
province to contact us in order to take this exciting initiative forward.
With Gauteng being the marketplace for the country's creative economy more
than two out of every five creative businesses are located in the province it
was clear that the creative industries deserved to be nurtured and supported,
she added.
âThis, our wonderful region of huge diversity in a very small area, has a
distinctive cultural identity reflective of its South African/Pan-African
melting pot nature. We can use this energy and drive to push the support of the
creative industries,â said Creecy.
Visit the Gauteng Craft and Design Centre, located on the corner of Rivonia
Road and West Street, just off Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton. Tel: 011 881
6431 for more information, E-mail: cdc.gauteng@gmail.com
Enquiries
Nomazwe Ntlokwana
Tel: 011 355 2578
Cell: 083 507 8068
Issued by: Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Gauteng
Provincial Government
9 April 2009
Source: Sapa
