From Sisseton to Makhanda: Co-designing Cultural Space to Transform Local economies through Arts-driven Education

Designed to put artists at the center of social, political, economic and cultural transformation, the Black Power Station is a locally and collectively-owned Pan African arts center in Makhanda, South Africa that aspires towards global connectivity and collaboration. The UVa/BPS project team will co-design a performance center to stimulate arts-driven education and community development initiatives. Co-design is a highly iterative and emergent creative process that treats all participants as socially and culturally situated, and troubles conventional ideas of expertise and divisions of labor. The BPS project builds on the co-design process developed with the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate for their Art Center in South Dakota.