Suzan Chala
The Arts & Culture Trust Cultural Development Project of the Year Award seeks to reward individuals and groups that devote a significant portion of their time, often without remuneration, to nurturing the country’s future stars in historically disadvantaged communities
The judges look at the implementation and sustainability of the project, as well as its success. The recipient of this year’s award is The Dance Factory.
The project was initiated in 1991 by dancers and teachers in the dance community to create a communal space for people in Johannesburg and surrounding townships. Funding for teachers and transport comes from the Royal Netherlands Embassy and amounts to about R150 000 a year. The National Arts Council of South Africa has offered funding for choreographers, and Standard Bank and Vita Promotions have been funding bursaries of about R15 000 a year.
The project has about 60 children between the ages of six and 17, who attend free classes on weekday afternoons and on Saturdays. The classes include ballet, African dance, French floor barre and contemporary dance.
Another nominee in the cultural development category was the Mineworkers’ Development Agency, the job-creation wing of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The agency operates in the rural mine-labour recruitment areas and in mining towns such as Welkom and Klerksdorp. Its programmes focus mainly on self-employment strategies.
“Although we are the development wing of NUM, we do not only train mineworkers. Because the impact of mining job losses affects the whole community, we recruit indiscriminately,” says Cyril Turton, marketing officer of the agency.
The agency’s extramural projects involve local artists painting murals and craftsmen creating large wooden panels depicting life on the mines. A group of disabled people has been drawn in to explore their basket-weaving skills by weaving wire that was to be integrated into the security fence around the centre in Jane Furse, Northern Province.
To help artists and craftsmen use their skills to generate income, the agency has a marketing unit that promotes their work.
Another group that was nominated was the Visual Arts and Crafts Academy, which was founded in 1993 with the aim of providing formal matric certification in the arts.
The academy focuses mainly on economically disadvantaged students who want to further their studies in the visual arts and related fields.
Students are equipped with tertiary-level entry requirements. The academy’s matric programme has been actively involved with the Department of Education at district and provincial levels in support of arts education and training. It offers specialised projects in schools such as the Kathlehong School for the Deaf and Blind and the Sibonile School for the Blind in Kliprivier. The academy’s arts and disability project aims at delivering both formal and informal sector training to educators, learners and adults in the disabled community.
Another nominee for the award, the South African Schools’ Festivals, was started by the Grahamstown Foundation to supplement and expand the educational experience of youth in the arts. It runs a variety of programmes including the annual programme of nine schools festivals throughout the country. The festival parade covers the whole country. This year it started in March in the Western Cape and has since been to KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape during the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and in Mpumalanga this week
The project seeks to facilitate cross-cultural understanding among students, to develop and support arts and culture, and to encourage the youth to explore arts and culture and creative thinking.