Cape Town Opera won two awards at the Western Cape Cultural Affairs Awards on Wednesday evening at the Artscape.
The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport hosted the awards for the first time since 2019 due to the Covid-19.
The opera's head of youth development and education, Madré Loubser, was awarded the prize in the ‘After School Arts and Culture Coaching Excellence’ category.
The opera also won the Neville Alexander Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion of multilingualism in the Language category.
Head of marketing at Cape Town Opera, Masixole Makwetu, said the organisation was proud of their work in addressing educational challenges facing youth in the province.
“We are the first opera and arts company in South Africa to introduce a dual surtitle board with both isiXhosa and English, along with sign language interpretation. Our online e-learning series Sing Like a Pro is available in four South African languages (Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho and English).
“Our in-person foundation studio programme has an isiXhosa-speaking facilitator, and our Activity Book for children is available in three languages (Xhosa, Afrikaans and English),” he said.
The awards celebrated people and organisations who contributed in the sectors of arts, culture, language, libraries, archives, heritage and museums across the province.
MEC Anroux Marais said: “As our economy continues to recover, we must also emphasise the significant role that arts and culture play in our local economy, especially in bringing jobs to many people.”
“I recognise how the Covid-19 pandemic affected many of you deeply, and so it is a particular privilege for me to recognise you and your contribution. Please keep doing what you are doing as you are helping us to bring hope and joy to so many people in the province.”
Head of department Guy Redman emphasised the important role played by those in the arts and cultural sector.
“Artists bring imagination to us, and we cannot hope without imagination. We honour people who have shown a great deal of resistance during a very dark time in our country,” he said.