Statement by the Western Cape MEC for Education, Cameron Dugmore

FIVE Cape Town arts and culture educators and a curriculum advisor will be travelling to North Carolina early this month (July 2004) to attend a conference aimed at sharing skills, teaching material and success stories with their counterparts in that part of the world.

The conference theme will be "Integrating the Arts across the Curriculum". It will concentrate on the three performing art forms of dance, music and drama, and the South African team will present workshops and materials with a strong South African focus.

The conference forms part of an exchange initiative called "The American South meets South Africa 2004".

Its initiators, Professors Eleanor Gwynn and Vanita Vactor, and a group of dance and drama students and Mass Communication faculty of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, have already spent time in Cape Town. For two weeks during May this year they shared important skills and teaching methods with twenty selected educators from EMDC South Metropole schools.

The exchange was initiated at the South African end by Jenny van Papendorp, Western Cape Education Department Senior Curriculum Planner for Arts and Culture, and coordinated by Chief Curriculum Adviser Glen van Harte of EMDC South Metropole.

Those who will attend the conference are: Ina Bruce (Curriculum Advisor, Arts and Culture, EMDC South), Mzonke Gobongwana (Westbank Secondary -dance), Kaya Mgodleni (Vukani Primary - drama), Thandi Swartbooi (Lwamdle Primary - dance) , Audia Stanley ( Strandfontein Secondary - music) and Vuyiswa Skweyiya (Sekelela Primary - music).

Issued by EMDC Metropole South

For any further comment or queries, contact Ina Bruce 021-370-2049 or 083-311-1575