ODA Family Makers Day – a celebration of creativity and future-makers

This Youth Month, Open Design Afrika brings you Family Makers Day, a day filled with creative workshops and demonstrations focused on developing future skills for our children and citizens. 

A social enterprise and NPO that serves as an international knowledge-sharing platform in Africa, Open Design Afrika (ODA) builds capacity through creativity to develop a culture of future-makers and change makers. “We educate, demonstrate and celebrate Africa’s opportunities and global contribution through design-led innovation,” explains Suné Stassen, Co-founder, Custodian and CEO of Open Design Afrika. “At ODA we believe that collaborative, creative intelligence is a superpower. We also believe that every child and citizen should have the right to develop it.”

 

On Saturday 26 June, #OpenDesignAfrika Family Makers Day, sponsored by the Western Cape Cultural Affairs and Sports and in partnership with the V&A Waterfront, will host a series of live and online events. Creative makers from diverse sectors will offer a selection of workshops, dialogues for the youth and demonstrations to children and families globally who are ready to explore, experiment, create and learn through virtual and in person ‘hands-on’ creative experiences.

“If you expose citizens and children at any age to creative and playful experiences, they develop creative intelligence, which includes empathy, emotional intelligence, problem solving, working collaboratively and critical thinking,” explains Stassen. “Family Makers Day provides an opportunity for everyone to experience creative collaboration and the magic of creativity. While creative experiences underpin the concept, we bring knowledge and technology from a variety of sectors to share content that applies across ages and can involve different levels of society.”

This year, Family Makers Day partners with Decorex, which starts its Cape Town takeover for the month of June and will be included in their monthly program. The Family Makers Day events are predominantly online to allow global access, with limited live events for locals to attend at the V&A Waterfront.

There is something for everyone in the family: from Captain Fanplastic for the little ones, to computer programming for tweens to the more adult-focused personal brand development workshop. Other exciting events on the line-up include My Dream Machine, a design workshop which is part of a global initiative; the Makers Landing space at the V&A Waterfront, which focuses on all things food and will host an exciting experience for the whole family; an Augmented Reality demonstration, which teaches young and old how to create AR experiences; and X-talks for Youth Changemakers, an interactive discussion platform for youth around the world and a fun and engaging workshop inspired by the art and architecture of the Zeitz MOCAA.

For all online events, participants need to register to receive the link for online participation, while bookings are essential for live events as seats are limited due to Covid regulations. Attendance is free for most online and live events.

The full programme and booking details will be available on Open Design Afrika FB page from early June.

For more information about ODA visit opendesignafrika.org or follow Open Design Afrika on Facebook @OpenDesignAfrika, Instagram @opendesignafrika and Twitter @opendesignaf.