Digital project targets young creatives
Kay Media Africa and United Kingdom-based Reprezent Radio have collaborated on a project — Scripts and Bars — which is aimed at supporting young Zimbabwean creatives.
The project is a digital content creation which brings together 100 creatives from Zimbabwe and the UK to collaborate across the music and literature sectors.
The project is being supported by the British Council in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
“This exciting new project seeks to enhance the digital content creation capacity and enterprise skills of creatives and arts organisations in Zimbabwe while strengthening their livelihoods, supporting job creation, and increasing their access to networks,” Kay Media Africa said in a statement.
“Creators and arts organisations within the music and literature sectors will go through digital and enterprise skills training and then awarded grants for digital content creation projects and to explore new and sustainable business models.”
Kay Media Africa said Covid-19 did more than bring regular income streams to a complete standstill, it has made visible the fragility of cultural work and project-based income generation in Africa’s creative and cultural industries.
“Therefore, the project aims to assist the young creatives and arts organisations by growing young people’s digital and entrepreneurial skills through collaboration with creative organisations, enhancing their art making and support livelihoods and job creation,” the statement reads.
“Stimulating Zimbabwean creative organisations and professionals in digital content creation, connecting individ
uals and organisations in the music and literature sectors to share, learn and collaborate.
“Developing and growing skills that lead to more professional opportunities for Zimbabwean creatives using digital content creation and supporting resilience of creative organisations, hubs, and individual creatives by building competencies and strengthening them.”
Kay Media Africa said the project will run until September.
“The programme will feature an exciting array of business support services and master class clinics, capacity building workshops, collaborative digital content creation, showcase events and roundtable talks and mixer/meetup networking cocktail events,” the multi-media company said.
“The events and workshops will be facilitated by industry experts from Zimbabwe and the UK and organised by creative hubs including Comexposed, Page
Poetry Alive, Khura Agency from Zimbabwe and UK-based hub, Reprezent.
“Scripts and Bars programme will contribute to exploring what the future
of local digital content could look like and giving young artists and creative hubs the opportunity to showcase their work and build networks.”