01 / UNIMA (Union International de la Marionette) South Africa:

UNIMA (Union International de la Marionette) South Africa is the local branch of the international puppetry community originally established in 1929 as the first cultural organization of UNESCO. UNIMA SA enjoys a respected reputation in the creative community both in South Africa and abroad; and we would like to emphasise our continued commitment to honouring our constituency through our ongoing resolution to public service and social transformation – as well as maintaining the highest standards of artistic excellence and creative innovation in the disciplines of puppetry and visual theatre.
We would also, however, like to bring attention to the fact that we are undergoing a rebranding and renaming of the organisation. We will now be known as Puppetry South Africa. UNIMA has served us well, and we continue to be grateful for the opportunities, insights and relationships our international colleagues have provided. However, we are eager to forge a solidified identity for our local chapter; and strongly feel that it would be to our benefit to locate ourselves within the community we seek to serve.

Puppetry South Africa (UNIMA SA) is an institution dedicated to puppetry and the visual arts, and to broadening the expression of our common humanity through these forms.

We have dedicated ourselves to our ongoing resolution to public service and social transformation – whilst maintaining the highest standards of artistic excellence and creative innovation in our disciplines.
We, currently, have three programs; Active Puppets, Creative Hands and the Out the Box Festival.

Active continues to cultivate puppetry and creative expression through its mentorship programs and job creation opportunities. There are currently three sub-sections under Active Puppets: Proactive (training community theatre groups and equipping them with puppetry specialist skills), Activate (a sponsored development program for historically disadvantaged artists and youth to participate in 5 days of Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Theatre, seeing shows and attending workshops and training) and the Professional Apprenticeship Programme (placing Active Puppets participants in professional apprenticeships to learn high-end production skills).

Creative Hands aims to build community, address spatial integration and harness diversity; and uses puppetry, visual theatre and storytelling in order to help young people develop leadership skills, confidence and social awareness through creativity.

Out The Box (the largest puppetry and visual performance festival in Africa, catering to both adults and children) pushes the boundaries of puppetry and visual performance, building bridges between artistic and cultural communities and stimulating a love of diversity in the arts.

Our next festival will take place in September 2013, but in keeping with the integrity of our vision statement and commitment to our holistic objectives, we will be commissioning pre and post Out The Box Festival events. The first pre Out The Box Festival happening will take place in September 2012, focusing on communities living in Cape Town, particularly in previously disadvantaged areas.

We encourage the people of Cape Town to inject themselves into our campaigns and involve themselves in our community. If you would like to be added to our newsletter emailer please email creativehands@unimasouthafrica.org, or join though our website: www.unimasouthafrica.org

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to celebrating an even more successful organisation, with your partnership, into 2012 and beyond.