Modelled on the world’s largest arts festivals, such as Edinburgh and Sydney, Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey invites festinos and arts patrons to plan Nelson Mandela Bay - Port Elizabeth into their National Arts Festival 2013 itinerary. High-calibre must-see Arts Journey offerings include prominent national visual arts exhibitions such as Roger Ballen’s Playpen, Modern Miniatures, and Greg Kerr.

Festival artistic director, Ismail Mahomed, will launch the Nelson Mandela Bay 2013 Fringe Programme on Tuesday, 18 June at 18:00 at the official opening of the Ballen Playpen exhibition at the recently revamped iconic heritage venue on Belmont Terrace, the Athenaeum and Little Theatre.

Partnerships between the National Arts Festival, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), an entity of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (NMBM) and the Port Elizabeth Opera House brings benefits to visual and performing artists from Port Elizabeth and surrounds, offering increased visibility and capacity-building for Port Elizabeth artists. “The MBDA is thrilled to be partnering with the National Arts Festival. It marks the culmination of a three year programme of investment in the arts through the implementation of Route 67, a public art driven tourism infrastructure project linking, restoring and evolving arts, culture and heritage venues in PE,” said MBDA Planning and Development manager, Dorelle Sapere. In addition, the Port Elizabeth Opera House presents six ground-breaking performance pieces on Grahamstown’s 2013 Arts Festival Main Showcase stages for the first time, elevating Eastern Cape arts talent to national level.

As such, the Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey represents the Creative Collective, which was established to collectively market the prominent arts venues and local creative talent across all visual arts and performing arts disciplines in Nelson Mandela Bay. 2013 sees the culmination of a vision that was articulated in 2009 by key players driving for the development of a sustainable Creative Arts Industry in Nelson Mandela Bay. This included Arts Journey head, Anthony Harris; the MBDA; and prominent galleries, theatre venues and institutions, including Anthony Harris’ ART Gallery; artEC; the GFI Art Gallery; The Tin House on Cuyler Street; the Athenaeum – Little Theatre; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University; and their School of Music Art and Design, Walker Digital Bridge Street; Art on Target; the Port Elizabeth Opera House; and Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.

“With so many on-going inspiring arts and culture developments in Nelson Mandela Bay, this partnership will profile the creative economies of Port Elizabeth and its surrounding areas to a captive audience of passionate art lovers who come via Port Elizabeth to the Festival from all over South Africa and the world. This is a major step towards positioning Port Elizabeth as a mainstream player in a flourishing South African arts sector," said Mahomed.

For more information, visit www.artsjourney-nelsonmandelabay.co.za.