Thebe Mabanga
The Windybrow Centre for the Arts in Hillbrow is currently hosting its Annual Arts Festival amidst threats of closure. Now celebrating its twentieth Anniversary, the festival could be the last if measures to rescue the Windybrow are not put in place urgently. “It would be a tragedy if we were to stand by and allow cultural institutions like the Windybrow to die,” says Walter Chakela, the centre’s artistic director.
In his eight years as the venue’s manager, Chakela has presided over a place that has been adversely affected by a decline in arts patronage and inner- city decay. The Windybrow’s annual budget of R3,5-million is financed mainly by a government subsidy that comes through the State Theatre in Pretoria. This is augmented by the First National Bank and the National Arts Council specifically for the festival, together with fund- raising initiatives like the Moses Molelekwa concert (with tickets selling for up to R200). Organisations such as the Fulton County Arts Council in Atlanta, United States, and The Netherlands government fund established crowd-pullers from their respective countries to raise the festival’s profile. During the 1999/2000 financial year, the arts and culture ministry provided a R1,2-million subsidy. For the 2000/2001 year no allocation has been made. This has left the centre with a deficit of R0,9-million and unable to increase employee remuneration for four years.
The non-allocation of funds is at odds with the Department of Public Works’ decision to continue with renovations to the Windybrow as part of its programme to maintain historical landmarks. To rectify this, the Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Bridgette Mabandla recently convened a meeting involving the Gauteng provincial and local governments to look into saving the Windybrow. “The [consensus] from that meeting was that the Windybrow should not close,” says Chakela. “As a result a three-pronged solution has been devised,” he continues, pointing out that a technical committee led by the national ministry’s Stephen Sack has been formed to investigate the financial aspect of the rescue package. Chakela then concedes that their emphasis on development has proven costly. “I think we should not be too enthusiastic about development. We should move to a point where the commercial work generates enough money to then allow us to fund development.” Chakela further advocates linking Windybrow’s revival to inner city development. An example of this is the Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council’s iGoli 2002. “My beef with it is that it focuses only on the Newtown Cultural Precinct.Which is fine, but not enough,” Chakela says of the council’s controversial privatisation plan.
What will help Windybrow, and arts in general, in the long run is an increase in funding. At the moment, the arts fraternity feels priority is being given to sports. As Chakela points out, “We do not begrudge this development. But it seems society is comfortable, even obsessed, with gladiators and not intellectuals.” He proposes the formation of a co-operative through which artists can present financially viable plans to attract sponsorship and maintain themselves between jobs. The centre’s expansion into Soweto through the use of Uncle Tom’s in Orlando is expected to have, in the long run, a lucrative spin- off.
“Ultimately, the arts should be self- sustaining,” Chakela says, “but to get there, there has to be funding to develop the different areas of arts administration and performance,” he concludes.
A possible lifeline could be the recently launched National Lottery. But without any word from government as to who the beneficiaries will be – or when the first payment will be made – that seems to be a line too far.
Any artist who is interested in being part of the co-operative can contact Walter Chakela on (011) 720-7009/7094