Professor Makhubu on fostering progressive practice in creative arts

As the not-so-new director of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Institute for Creative Arts (ICA), Professor Nomusa Makhubu is determined to establish new areas of transdisciplinary research that join academia and civil society to bridge traditional academic boundaries and galvanise the institute’s commitment to social justice.

The ICA is a research institute that facilitates socially responsive and innovative creative practice across a multitude of disciplines, including music, dance, performance art, literature, fine art and film. The institute encourages artistic research that connects artists, activists, public thinkers and scholars towards achieving social justice.

Since taking office in June 2025, there’s been a lot on her plate. UCT News caught up with Professor Makhubu for more on the past year and her plans while at the helm.

Niémah Davids (ND): Tell us about the ICA’s flagship programmes and how these link with transdisciplinary research.

Nomusa Makhubu (NM): The Live Art Festival (LAF) and the Live Arts Network Africa are the ICA’s two flagship programmes. And in these programmes and others, the ICA encourages collaboration and collective planning that contributes to turning projects into tangible results. This approach tackles inherent inequalities where emerging practitioners struggle to find spaces to harness their potential, and challenges them to explore how to work differently, especially in spaces accessible to multiple publics.

ND: How does your mandate tie in with that of the institute’s?

NM: I’ve been mandated to steer the institute’s research vision and to align its objectives with institutional goals and public needs. My intention is to establish new areas of transdisciplinary research that are responsive to South Africa’s ever-changing cultural landscape.

Ultimately, as director, I need to ensure the institute produces research and programmes that foster progressive practice in creative arts.

ND: Why is transdisciplinary research important in this context?

NM: Transdisciplinary research across creative disciplines and across natural and social sciences is at the heart of our work. It’s important because it enriches methods and approaches and is sensitive to epistemic justice and how knowledge circulates.

ND: What are your top three goals for your tenure?

NM: At the top of my list is to generate critical research through creative arts and foster additional mentorship opportunities for a generation of researchers in areas of live art and social justice. I’d also like to establish long-term partnerships with local and international civil society organisations, artist collectives and other arts institutes; and through creative arts contribute meaningfully to advancing social justice.

ND: Reaching these goals will take work. Where will you start?

NM: Step one is to recruit and collaborate with researchers, postgraduate students and activists across a myriad of disciplines. Thereafter, facilitate a series of concept-development workshops that join these role players and align the ICA’s work with the public’s needs will help us achieve our goals.

ND: Looking at the institution you inherited, what are you most proud of today?

NM: I am particularly proud of the ways in which the ICA has played a role in shaping live arts practice in South Africa through programmes such as the LAF and Infecting the City (ITC). Both of these were led by my predecessor, Professor Jay Pather. As the longest-running public art festivals in the country, both the LAF and ITC have shaped the live art discourse and catalysed public interventions in Cape Town. These festivals connect people and create shared and accessible experiences of profound and critical creative works.

ND: What would you say festivals like LAF and ITC mean for the institute’s work?

NM: Facilitating these festivals exemplifies the ICA’s work in generating dialogue on how public spaces are experienced. They excavate layered historical meanings of place and dispossession and illuminate different social embodied experiences. Over the years, the institute has been very successful with catalysing new creative methods in public spaces, which I am committed to continue doing while at the helm.

ND: Having spent your first full year in office, what are you most looking forward to this year?

NM: It’s got to be organising the LAF, which takes place in October. It is a multi-site event with interventions on campus, Cape Town CBD and KwaLanga. We hope it will be a thought-provoking event. Artists are encouraged to work in response to specific sites, histories and socio-economic conditions. While the festival includes the use of multiple traditional spaces like galleries and theatres, most interventions take place in public squares, near monuments and in public gardens.

Planning the festival is a mammoth task, but it’s an exciting showcase of work. I am really looking forward to this year’s iteration.

The 2026 LAF will take place from 14 to 18 October.