Development of a fibre-arts design project with the elderly in the Western Cape

Abstract

The focus of the Fibre-Arts Design Project (FADP) was to address issues of ageism in South Africa, particularly focusing on addressing the elderly's socio-economic well-being in Cape Town. This was achieved through the creation and implementation of a socially designed programme that was specifically aimed at empowering the elderly through the implementation of craft skills-training, as well as through the development and fabrication of a marketable women's accessory range. The FADP, which is a socially driven, income-generating model, improved the elderly's craft skills and revived hands-on creativity, as well as preserved and restored some of the elderly's disused and forgotten traditional craft skills and techniques. The success of the FADP is also attributed largely to its investment in people, whilst simultaneously and actively promoting strategies of knowledge and skills creation as a preferred and viable path to sustaining a community's creative and economic life. This is an important aspect when implementing social design programmes amongst similar particular disadvantaged communities and ensuring their sustainability.