Wits School of Arts (ETDs)

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Cultural Policy

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    Protecting Independent Local Contemporary Fashion: An exploration of policies that shaped the South African fashion industry and approaches to protect local independent South African contemporary fashion as cultural heritage
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Atkinson, Kendall Lee; Desando, Marcus
    Local independent South African contemporary fashion designers face a challenging market when entering the South African fashion industry to sell their products. Local independent contemporary designers are forced to compete with the overwhelmingly popular international fast fashion brands that populate malls nationwide with little to no support. This has created challenging and convoluted entry points for local independent contemporary designers and continuous challenges to stay in the market. Independent local contemporary fashion designers offer something different than chain stores: a specific creative and cultural design perspective. People are naturally influenced by their environments and identity; therefore, local independent contemporary fashion designers instinctively design from their cultural perspective. We are losing aspects of cultural identity and history by not supporting or protecting local independent contemporary fashion designers’ businesses. This paper investigates the challenges both the designers and consumers face in the industry and different methods of protecting local independent South African contemporary fashion designers to preserve their art and support the local fashion sector. The research methodology used was hermeneutical phenomenology, and my experience as a consumer of the South African fashion industry was not omitted due to the study method. Five interviews were conducted, three individuals participated in photovoice, and 84 participants were surveyed. The results show evidence of the innate interconnection of culture and cultural heritage with South African contemporary designers and the challenges that the designers face due to policy decisions by the South African government. In order to protect local contemporary fashion designers to allow them the opportunity for success, fashion should be declared as a cultural heritage by the South African government.
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    The Historical Contribution of Black Musicians to Orchestral Classical Music around Johannesburg and the Implications for Cultural Policy
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-07) Bokaba, Shadrack; Pyper, Brett
    This study documents the historical contribution of black musicians to classical music in Johannesburg. It places the spotlight on South Africa’s cultural policy (explicitly or implicitly) over the last century and provides ongoing reflections on this period. The thesis analyses the conditions, within and beyond the prevailing policy that enabled black orchestral musicians to practice this art form. By exploring the complex origins of these practices, the study suggests that the dichotomous thinking about culture as either Eurocentric or Afro-centric may be misplaced due to the possibility that Western classical music may have become part of black South African cultural life as a result of having been translated, transferred, hybridised or acculturated. In addition, the study places the government’s arm’s length funding model under scrutiny and finds this approach continues to be applied inconsistently since it was first presented in the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage (1996). As both a classical musician and orchestral administrator, the author has lived part of the history described in the thesis and, through analysis, attempts to establish a dialogue between professional experience and what scholarly reflection can do to that practice. He presents narratives through insider lenses, with carefully selected interviewees, and interrogates situations and sites over a century-long period of the history of black orchestral music practice in South Africa.