The Community Arts Project (CAP) is dedicated to providing people-centered education and training in the visual and performing arts. We work with youth and unemployed adults in order to help develop their income generating skills and to open up opportunities for further learning. CAP is committed to developing and promoting the arts for community development.

Founded in 1977, CAP started as an organisation aimed at bringing people from different economic and racial backgrounds together around the making of art and staging of theatre. It worked very informally and during the 1980s positioned itself as a strongly political organisation - making T-shirts and posters and staging performances for organisations and groups opposed to the apartheid government. CAP played an important role in developing the visual and performing arts skills of workers from trade unions and political organisations in ways that would further the aims of the liberation movement. As well, many otherwise marginalized black artists launched their careers at CAP during this period.

With the change in government in 1994, CAP became more concerned with providing well-organized education and training in the visual and performing arts for unemployed people in order to help people to access further education, enter the job market or create their own jobs. The staff at CAP are committed to providing people with education and training which uses their own experience as a foundation for developing new and exciting skills. We believe that the arts can provide people with opportunities for supporting themselves and making a meaningful contribution to the society around them.
CAP remains committed to the aim of bridging the gaps between different communities, and strives to ensure that the learner profile reflects the rich diversity of learners living in the Western Cape.

Recent accolades for the organization include having received the Cultural Development Project of the Year Award for 1998 from the Art and Culture Trust of the President. CAP has also been playing a leading role in the development of new standards and qualifications for education and training in the visual and performing arts, under the mandate of the South African Qualifications Authority.

The Community Arts project is funded by: