Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation

The Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation (also known as the Africa Open Institute or AOI) is an independent and autonomous interdisciplinary institute in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University. It has its offices at Pieter Okkers House, 7 Joubert Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

The institute

Founded in 2016 as an independent entity from the Music Department, the institute developed from the Documentation Centre for Music (DOMUS), to which it remains connected through its funding of the DOMUS archive, its intellectual and creative programmes, curating activities, archival collection initiatives and core vision of creating in DOMUS the largest open-access archive for music on the African continent. Professor Stephanus Muller was the founding director.

The work encompasses musical theatre and opera as well.

The Performing Arts Research Collection (PARC)

In 2025 the institute became the new home for what in the past has usually been referred to as the ESAT archive (an informal collection of archival documents and other materials used in writing the entries). In a project headed by Stephanus Muller and Temple Hauptfleisch, the informal collection was relocated to more permanent and accessible premises at the AOI, with Dr Esther Marie Pauw as the first administrator of what has been named the Performing Arts Research Collection (acronym: PARC).