Promises but little diversity characterised the African Institute of Art’s 10th birthday celebration. Bafana Khumalo was there
AFTER years of cultural drought in Soweto, the first few drops of what could become a rainy season have started to fall. One of these raindrops splashed across the Funda Art Centre in Diepkloof last Saturday at an exhibition celebrating 10 years of the African Institute of Art.
The exhibition, part of the Arts Alive festival, was a relatively low-key affair and doubled up as a certificate presentation ceremony for students of the institute.
Addressing the small audience — mainly students and a few patrons of the arts — Vusi Mavuso, a representative of the MEC for sport, recreation and culture in the PWV region, was full of promises: in the new dispensation, he said, cultural forms which had been suppressed and denied resources in the past would now be given full attention.
“We are in an era of a cultural revolution,” he said, emphasising the need to celebrate the diversity of South African society. If diversity was to be celebrated, however, this particular exhibition was lacking.
As Mavuso noted, there was no work by women. He said affirmative action would be needed to ensure that more people had access to skills and education. He did not delve into what concrete steps would be taken by his department to ensure this wider participation, though. In a way his speech was reminiscent of those of government functionaries in the past who were briefed to go to community events, make the right noises and disappear.
Started in the mid-1980s to redress imbalances in art education, the AIA has served as a useful launching pad in the black community for artists who might want to go into industry or further their training at more formal institutions.
It has produced graphic artists, some of whom are plying their trade in the advertising industry, illustrators and fine artists, whose work has been exhibited locally and abroad.