Thousands of learners enter Curro Arts Superhero (CAS) each year. Only a small group progress to the Advanced Mentorship Programme (AMP), where their creative work becomes the starting point for an individual project with an industry professional.

In 2026, CAS received 15 152 entries across its Performance and Submissions categories. These covered fields from singing and dance to photography, filmmaking and coding.

Of those entries, 355 achieved Kryptonite, the highest CAS certification. Only Kryptonite recipients can be considered for AMP, and Curro Create ultimately selected 14 learners for this year’s programme.

For Penny Youngleson, Creative Head: Curro Create, elaborates, ‘Our mentor-adjudicators are quick to spot those entries that stand out from the crowd: the exceptional insights, rare skill sets and uncommonly savvy understanding of their craft are some of the reasons learners are selected for AMP,’ she says.

 

 

Finding the quality that is difficult to measure

Curro Create draws up a shortlist before independent specialists in the relevant creative fields help select the final AMP group.

Technical ability matters, although Penny says the strongest candidates often bring something less easily defined.

‘But, truly, it’s usually the thing you can’t name. The way they just have their creativity in their bones and have to share it or else they’ll burst. Those learners you can’t stop thinking about all day because no one their age should be able to do what they can do. The ones you can see on a professional platform tomorrow, holding their own against the rest of the world with ease. That’s what gets them selected,’ she says.

Before the programme begins, Curro Create also checks with each learner’s school and parents or guardians that they can manage the mentorship alongside their academic commitments.

Then the eight-week process starts.

 

 

A mentorship built around one learner

AMP does not follow a standard project brief. The mentor is chosen according to the learner’s particular ability, and the pair then develop an individual challenge together.

‘The mentors are selected on the basis of what that learner excels at,’ Penny explains.

Previous AMP projects have explored areas including blade smithing, poetry cycles and African storytelling through movement.

‘If a learner can imagine it, we will find the right person to draw it out of their heads and into reality,’ she says.

This year’s mentors include professional musicians, choreographers and visual artists. Their work with learners goes beyond assessing what they can already do. Each mentorship focuses on developing a skill or project towards the standards and processes used in professional creative practice.

 

 

From an original song to a professional recording

Curro Durbanville Grade 11 learner Luca Human offers one example of how far that process can go.

Luca, Curro Create’s 2026 Creative of the Year, earned her second AMP selection after submitting an original composition through CAS Produce it!

Her musicianship led Curro Create to expand the project into the full recording process. Luca worked with professional session musicians, as well as a sound engineer and producer, to develop the song for release.

The finished track is scheduled to reach public streaming platforms in November.

For Penny, that progression captures what AMP can offer when the mentorship matches the learner and the work.

‘That is a direct link between our programmes and our learners building a career for themselves in their chosen industries.’

 

 

What comes next

The 2026 AMP group includes learners selected through both CAS Performance and Submissions.

Curro Create is documenting the individual mentorships and final projects, with videos from this year’s programme being shared on the Curro Create YouTube channel.

For the 14 learners involved, AMP begins with work that caught someone’s attention among thousands of CAS entries. What follows is deliberately individual: finding the professional who can recognise what is already there and help the learner discover what they can do with it next.