/ 1 October 1999

Thank God it’s Friday

Mail & Guardian reporter

Friday, the Mail & Guardian’s arts and culture section, was chosen as Print Publication of the Year in Support of Arts and Culture at the 1999 Arts and Culture Trust Awards held in Cape Town on September 23.

The M&G scooped three nominations, making it the undisputed leader in culture reporting. Former Friday editor Alex Dodd was nominated for Arts and Culture Journalist of the Year and the M&G and M-Web Internet site ZA@Play for Electronic Media of the Year in Support of Arts and Culture.

The Arts and Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award went to 80-year-old author Es’kia Mphahlele, who paid tribute to the generations of black artists of the 1940s and 1950s who struggled to establish the arts with little funding.

The winners of the other categories were: Education Project of the Year: the South African Music Education Trust; Cultural Development Project of the Year: Buskaid Arts and Culture; Publicist of the Year: Bridget van Oerle; Arts and Culture Journalist of the Year: Sandile Memela; Electronic Media of the Year in Support of Arts and Culture: But Is It Art?; Arts and Culture Administrator of the Year: Carl Johnson; City of the Year in Support of Arts and Culture: Grahamstown; and International Sponsor of the Year: Nordic Council of Ministers for Shuttle 99.