| Faculty of Arts |
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| The School of Music, Art and Design |
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Music - NMMU Choir - Tour of USA
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| The NMMU Choir staged
14 concerts in 16 days during their American tour,
performing in places such as Chicago, Hyde Park in
New York State and Florida. The impact on students -
culturally, musically, socially and in an ambassadorial
sense, has been a profound learning experience and this
international exposure has had a hugely positive impact
on their social and musical growth. Choir singing forms
an integral part of millions of South Africans, but
more specifically the African traditional culture and
can be regarded as one of its most important social pastimes. |
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Ceramic design: RED EARTH CLAY PROJECT
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| The Red Earth Clay project is
a craft empowerment business initiative. The project has
received funding from the Department of Arts and Culture,
the Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation as well as from British
American Tobacco (BAT).
The purpose of the Red Earth Clay Project is to assist
and afford talented previously disadvantaged young adults
the opportunity to gain a tertiary education that will
not only provide them with a recognized qualification
but also the creative and technical skills that will allow
for self-sufficiency. The project also aims to bridge
the gap between tertiary level and the market place through
the establishment of a business unit and small production
facility. The project also assists and trains local community
craft initiatives to reach full potential.
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Fashion design: STYLEFORCE FASHION
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| The fashion department at NMMU
is well known for the excellent fashion design students
it produces, many of whom go on to exciting international
fashion careers. These fashion students get to showcase
their graduation collections by participating in a fashion
show called StyleForce, which is partially sponsored by
the Weekend Post newspaper. StyleForce is a prestigious
fashion event on the Eastern Cape calendar, which gives
the NMMU fashion students national exposure. Key sponsors
of StyleForce were the Foshini Group, the Fuchs Foundation
and Siemens.
Apart from the annual fashion show, the department has,
in the past also participated in prestigious events for
the PE Technikon and recently for the newly merged NMMU
University. Some of the requests that have been honoured
included a fashion show in 2003 for The SciFest Science
Festival in Grahamstown; the National Architecture Conference
in 2004; the NMMU Culture Week in 2005 and the National
Executive Secretaries Convention in 2005, the latter at
the request of the NMMU Vice Chancellor.
Unique mohair training…
The Department also approached mohair companies in Port
Elizabeth to educate students on the properties of mohair
and to encourage young designers to work with the wool.
It is hoped that both the mohair industry as well as the
students will benefit from this arrangement. The students
are also taught skills which enable them to start small
knitting concerns or to design for the knitting industry.
These mohair garments now also feature as part of the
fashion show and have received excellent reviews to-date.
As far as we know, we are the only South African institution
offering mohair design training.
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The School of Music, Art and Design
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The vision of the Music Department at NMMU is to create a well-funded music centre that will be able to provide learners with excellent facilities and teaching from a young age. In the short term, four areas of music performance were identified as possible development agents for this vision: the NMMU Community Wind Band/Brass Ensemble, the NMMU String/Symphony Orchestra, the NMMU Jazz Orchestra and the NMMU Jazz Ensemble. A series of music performance events were created with funding assistance from the Trust and the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra.
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Choral Conducting Programme
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Previously disadvantaged teachers from rural areas, especially in the Eastern Cape, who have not had formal music education, now have the chance to engage in music studies through a choral conducting program offered on a part time basis at the NMMU. Several students have received a Postgraduate Diploma and in 2008 the first candidate enrolled for a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from this specific program. The music programme is substantially funded by the Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). This programme aims to develop and empower its graduate students to become lecturers in these subjects and several students are now teaching in the satellites in Kokstad, Umtata, Butterworth and King Williamstown.
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