The National Arts Festival was established in 1974 in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Each year, in winter, the rural town transforms into a hive of theatres, galleries, markets and eating spots.
South Africa’s longest running festival has lived through and reflected a turbulent history: from the height of the racist apartheid system and the advent of democracy to life today in what remains a deeply unequal society.
How does one assess the impact of a festival like this? Jen Snowball is a cultural economist who’s set out to answer that question. She’s also the co-founder of the open-access African Journal of Creative Economy. She believes impact can be judged in terms of economics, artistic value, social value, and sustainability. We asked her to elaborate.
