Cape Town's creative spaces

Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, CEO of Cape Town Partnership, which facilitates interaction and collaboration in Cape Town, says that these shared spaces allow people from all walks of life to communicate on common ground and, at the same time, give them the opportunity to interact with the city’s playful side.

Buskers_03_16_©Stephen Alfreds

“Generally, people meeting in these spaces have similar interests or inclinations. This is why the Partnership advocates so hard for the provision of clean, safe and engaging public spaces across the Cape Town metropole.”

With spaces mentioned previously being mostly well promoted already, Makalima-Ngewana feels that there is always a new way to promote them as alternatives to the usual attractions; art and entertainment are always big draw cards to achieve this objective.

“These days, many people do not have creative spaces in their own homes or neighbourhoods, and many are trying to reclaim and re-purpose derelict spaces in their areas to create these. Whatever your creative form of expression, or whether or not you see yourself as a creative person, spaces like this are important to recharge, unwind and even if only for a few moments, escape the hurly-burly of daily life.”

Buskers_03_16_©Stephen_alfreds

Where business deals are closed

However, creative spaces are no longer exclusively for the arts, they are also where many business deals are closed and 'big ideas' are pitched. Workspaces such as Workshop 17 at the Waterfront, the Woodstock Exchange, The Bureau and Inner Ideas Cartel, to name but a few, are fine examples of business spaces that promote play and creativity and fulfil a serious business function simultaneously.

If you want to discover the city’s creative side, events like First Thursdays, a monthly activation that takes place on Church Square on the first Thursday of every month, is one such project that looks at providing an enabling environment for citizens to activate the space creatively.

Buskers_03_16_©Stephen_alfreds

Other events, like City Walk Saturdays, held on the third Saturday of every month is another project that calls upon citizens to use the public spaces along Cape Town’s City Walk – from the Company’s Garden, along St George’s Mall, up Waterkant Street to St Andrew’s Square, to connect and play.

For more information on how to partake in these creative festivities or how you can get more involved in promoting these events, you can visit Cape Town Partnership.