OWNING THE LIGHT

The series that profiles people in art and creative careers.

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Zhi Zulu - Straddling the lines between student, teacher and practitioner

Zinhle Zulu, who goes my the artist name 'Zhi Zulu’, is an illustrator and cultural visual storyteller from Johannesburg. Zinhle studied her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Visual Communication at the Open Window Institute. She is also a lecturer at this institution.

Zinhle won a Gold-Craft Loerie award for illustration and was part of Design Indaba's creative class of 2019. She has participated in numerous notable exhibitions, including the Turbine Art Fair, David Krut Studios and she has represented South Africa at the Semerang International Illustration Festival.

She currently runs an illustration studio called Zuluvisual through which she collaborates with various clients on freelance work, textile design and illustrated merchandise. Zinhle is currently studying her Master of Arts in Design with the hope to make an impact on the state of literacy in our country through the use of contemporary cultural illustration. Aimed at budding entrepreneurs, the two-part comic series she is working on will provide them an engaging and visual resource that removes some of the barriers put in place by business jargon and other commonplace discourses that exclude, as opposed to educate and inform.

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Zamansele Nsele - How her Black Visual Studies research influences her teaching

Zamansele Nsele is an Art Historian, and Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Johannesburg. Between 2017 and 2020, at the same insititution, Zamansele taught Design Studies at the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, and prior to that she taught Art History and Visual Culture at Rhodes University. 

In 2018, Zamansele was included in the Mail & Guardian’s prestigious list of the Top 200 Young South Africans. In the same year, she was selected by the jury of the CAA (College Arts Association in New York City)  as part of a cohort of the top 15 art historians and curators in the Global South to receive a Getty grant and take part in the CAA-Getty Program. Zamansele’s writing has been published by The Journal of the Asian and African Studies, English in Africa, Elle Decoration (The Africa Edition), The Journalist, The Mail & Guardian, The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa and by Routledge Press.

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Folasayo Olalere - The importance of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and cultural practices

Folasayo Enoch Olalere is a trans-disciplinary designer, researcher and educator. He has a PhD in Product Design, from UMK Malaysia. He did his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Vaal University of Technology, and is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Visual Communication Design, at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa.  

Folasayo has over 20 research publications in accredited journals, international conference proceedings and as book/book chapters. As a practicing designer, he has invented three product innovations and has won several innovation awards including being crowned the SA National Champion and International Champion at the 2017 Konica Minolta International Contest in Berlin, Germany.

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The Students - Andile, Thobile and Mhlengi

Episode coming soon...

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Sibongile Imenda - Educating others is a calling

Sibongile Imenda has over the past 20 years in the Graphic Design industry. As a graphic designer, she worked in East London at Creative Castle Studio, Homegrown Studio and Intengu Communication. She currently works as a Graphic Design lecturer at National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA), equipping her students with what they need to enter the creative industry marketplace.

Sibongile Imenda has been involved with a Train-the-Trainer programme for training lecturers from various Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges, making sure that they are equipped to teach graphic design and multimedia at TVET level. She is also involved in a project for teaching digital literacy skills in various rural communities in different provinces around the country.

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Mashaole Makwela - His journey to educating others and his hopes for closing the loop with his students

Mashaole Makwela is a Senior Fine Art lecturer and programme coordinator at the Vaal University of Technology.

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Jeanne Shange-Kalala - Some initial steps that can support the decolonization of knowledge

Jeanne Phumzile Shange-Kalala is a Lecturer in the Department of Visual Communication Design &Graphic Design, at the Durban University of Technology. She previously worked for five years as a Junior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, in the College of Science and Technology (CST), at the University of Rwanda in East Africa. In 2017 she was then appointed as acting Deputy Dean for the School of Architecture and the Built Environment.

Jeanne has been living in Durban, South Africa, since 2018 and lecturing at Durban University of Technology. Jeanne’s PhD research topic deals with the processes of decolonisation and internationalisation of higher education and what this means or how this influences the design discipline.  

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Zee Feels - Representation & celebrating us, just as we are

Zinhle Sithebe is a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Artist. She is the creator and face behind ZEE FEELS, her brand and the artist name she goes by. Zinhle graduated from the Open Window Institute with a Bachelors Degree in Visual Communication. At the time of recording, Zinhle was involved in an exhibition with The Project Space Africa Organisation, and their Womxn Relief Fund, that helps woman artists during the pandemic by raising funds. 

Zinhle has taken part in a few exhibitions at galleries including No End Contemporary Art Space, a Pan-African Women’s festival in Zimbabwe called “Women, Wine and Words Festiva”l and was also a Nandos’ Hot Young Designer finalist in Pattern design, which had her showcase her design with Nandos at Design Indaba 2019. Her aim is to create art that is full of self love and bits of magic that many people can look at, feel represented, and have a sense of love for themselves when viewing.

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In this special edition of 'The Educators: Call & Response' we profile the invisible hands involved in educating the next generation of design and visual communication practitioners. 

We speak to six educators and academics, working across higher education institutions in South Africa, and talk about their journeys to teaching others. In one special episode we also get a view of some students, to see how they are doing in this moment in time, and their aspirations for their careers and development. We then close off the series with a practicing illustrator and designer in the early-stages of her career.