AP21 Seda

Ever since 2000 when the United Nations (UN) identified 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) alongside another 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many countries have realized these twin objectives can be achieved easily if there is complementarity between traditional industrial development and cultural creativity as drivers of economic growth.

The potential to achieve economic growth through culture is demonstrably not in doubt. we argue that cultural industries can assist in sustainable growth if they transit from cultural production as vocational ‘creative arts’ to cultural production as ‘creative economies.’ Community theatres must be capacitated with proper skills in production management. Six community theatre groups in Tshwane University of Technology’s HELLO Community Arts Development Program are used to investigate production processes used by community theatre groups as we make a case for these groups to transit from the arts as mere ‘creative arts’ to arts practice as sustainable ‘creative economies.’