Funding of the arts will soon rest in the hands of a National Arts Council. We look at the cultural politicking ahead.
Katy Bauer
MORE than a year after the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology commissioned the independent Arts and Culture Task Group (Actag) to compile an extensive report on how the arts should be funded in the future, the first draft of the new Bill – the National Arts Council Bill, 1996 – has been drawn up.
Stemming from the recent arts and culture white paper, the new funding model is a Lamborghini of democracy compared to the old banger of inefficient, elitist, non-diverse, eurocentric funding of the past.
No more will the four Performing Arts Councils hog all the cash in order to stage countless productions of Swan Lake. In fact, the Bill intends to lay down such parameters as to ensure nobody hogs anything at all. Hail equity, diversity and enlightenment. Perhaps.
The guardian of the Bill will be the new National Arts Council (NAC) – directly, and the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology – indirectly. Like most other Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) initiatives, the model confuses the hell out of just about everyone, so here’s a brief “dunce’s guide” to how the structure should work:
* The NAC councillors will be selected through a process of public nominations and open interviews. The councillors have already been shortlisted to 33 candidates (see below) and will be interviewed by a panel chaired by Constitutional Court member Justice Albie Sachs. The shortlist will thereby be reduced to between 14 and 22 names.
* The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Lionel Mtshali, will select between 9 and 14 NAC members from that list.
* Nine provincial representatives will then be added to the council. In the case of the four provinces which already have performing arts councils, the head of each of these bodies will automatically be elected to the council. The rest will be selected through a process overseen by provincial MECs.
* The NAC will then appoint an unspecified number of advisory panels consisting of five representatives each, which will advise specifically on one field or discipline.
It reads like a bureaucratic banquet – the sort that has the administration munching most of the food before artists so much as whiff the hors d’oeuvres. Although the bill is fairly non-figure-specific, Actag representative Mike van Graan assures that the Actag report recommends no more than 15% of the total budget be used for administration. The remainder is to go directly into production and promotion of the arts.
So how’s the money going to filter through to the guy with a banjo and a dancing monkey? (Don those dunce hats.) For the first time, individuals, companies, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations will be allowed to apply directly to the NAC for grants. However, Actag representative, artist Andrew Verster, has this to say on the matter: “Artists all over the world stand on their own two feet, why shouldn’t they here? … The money will be put to best use promoting South African culture and raising public awareness of the arts.” A somewhat vitriolic point of view from one rather well-off painter to his countless less fortunate contemporaries.
Van Graan contradicts the statement: “Artists will receive most of the money, but there will also be money allocated to promoting the arts.” Unfortunately, a step-by-step guide for artists on how to go about applying for grants, the criteria to be met and so on is not yet available as this will be decided by the not yet formed NAC itself.
Who will the NAC and advisory panelists be? The Bill reads a little confusingly on this matter. First it states that the representatives will have “specialist skills which are not directly arts related”. It then goes on to say that they will be “persons who have achieved distinction in the arts”. Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Bridgit Mabandla attempted to clarify the matter by saying that both statements are true – ie the councillors will be made up of artists, administrators, lawyers, economists, educators and the like, but the advisory panels will be made up solely of experts in specific artistic fields.
Even though the performing arts councils will now have to share most of “their” golden cake (their budgets will be cut by about R10- million, R20-million and R30-million respectively over the next three years), Mabandla is eager to stress that the department has no desire to starve them to death: “The established arts councils are national assets and will not be dismantled. But now their productions will have to be competitive like the rest.”
One concern about the new budgeting is that spreading the already insubstantial pot of funding jam too thinly might result in a myriad of shabby productions or works as substantial projects will be unaffordable. “That is a genuine concern,” says Mabandla, “because the budget isn’t very big to begin with. But if artists have credibility through the NAC then they can look for further funding from the private sector more effectively.” Mabandla went on to say that the NAC would need to become an attractive credential in order to sell the arts to business.
Right now the model, which should be up and running by January 1997, looks interesting. Yet another highly sophisticated, superbly democratised structure to add to the RDP’s highly sophisticated, superbly democratised, though arguably ineffectual bow. But whether the painstakingly fair process of actually handing out cash and then monitoring the output of recipients will be efficient, speedy and incorruptable we’ll have to wade through several action-packed episodes to find out.
Public hearings of NAC candidates will take place on Friday, November 8 and Monday, November 11 at the Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg
The full NAC shortlist:
HERE are the 33 names shortlisted for a place on the National Arts Council:
Gauteng: Professor Elize Botha (literature), Richard Cock (music), Mimi Coertse (opera, performing arts), Lisa Combrinck (literature), Vanessa Cooke (theatre), John Kani (theatre), Vicki Karras (dance), David Koloane (fine art), Dr FJ Kok (arts administration, music, dance), Corinna Lowry (dance, choreography, dance administration), Don Mattera (literature), Professor Zakes Mda (drama, literature), Jerry Mofokeng (theatre), Zake Ngqobe (crafts), Norman Nossel (music, cultural sponsorship), Christopher Seabrooke (theatre production), Susan Sellschop (crafts), Christopher Till (arts administration), Mannie Manim (theatre, theatre administration), Mandie van der Spuy (arts and culture public relations)
Western Cape: Ramzie Abrahams (education, museums), Omar Badsha (photography, visual arts), Marilyn Martin (architecture, arts administration, visual arts)
KwaZulu-Natal: Darius Brubeck (jazz, popular music), Linda Bukhosini (music, opera), Kessie Govender (drama), Nise Malange (literature), Gitanjali Pather (arts administration, art education), Kiren Thathiah (visual arts), Bongani Tembe (music, choral music), Professor Musa Xulu (music).
North West: Memory Herholdt (music, dance)
* Karen Skawras (visual arts – Gauteng) has withdrawn.