From clothing designers to cocktail crafters and everything in between, the Cointreau Creative Crew competition has been on the hunt for female creative projects across South Africa. More than 200 hundred hopefuls submitted projects in the hopes of winning a R100 000 grant towards their work. And finally, after months of shortlisting, five finalists were flown to Cape Town for the awards ceremony where education initiative Outliers was named the winner.
The finalists were judged by a handpicked crew who are already making waves in the creative industry. On Thursday 4 April, Cointreau hosted the award ceremony at The Stack in Gardens. There, each finalist was provided with the opportunity to speak about their projects.
Winning project Outliers was founded by former University of Cape Town researcher Heidi Segal, who was dissatisfied with the lack of transformation and diversity within the science faculty. So she left the university to make a difference. Her project provides free education and resources to tutors so they can help high school children achieve the marks needed to get into tertiary education.
The other projects that made it into the finals included Nanziwe Mzuzu’s The Tide of Conspiracy Theories, which documented her journey of discovery as a reformed gangster’s girlfriend; Tiny Mungwe’s Urban Retreat on acquired land in Inanda where creatives who need space and time to nurture their projects can utilise the facilities; Ruramai Musekiwa’s interactive platform called Sibahle, which utilises creative mediums to cultivate positive African stories; and Nokwanda Mathenjwa’s Yamilet that allows women to resell their clothing to others.
Photography Dearheart Photos