The Arts & Culture Trust Awards 2002 were handed out on October 10, at a ceremony attended by significant figures in both the media and entertainment industries of South Africa.
Nedbank Arts is a founding sponsor of the awards along with the Ministry of Arts and Culture and a number of large corporations including Sun International and Vodacom. The Royal Netherlands Embassy is the sole foreign sponsor and the Mail & Guardian is the awards’ media partner.
Because of Nedbank’s involvement in the awards the event is held at the Nedcor headquarters in Sandton. Last year the theme adopted focused on street culture. This year, in keeping with the subject of the heavyweight Lifetime Achievement Award the theme was a focus on traditional music.
The lifetime achiever of 2002 is the late NoFinish Dywili, a gourd mouth harp player of the abaThembu people who live near Lady Frere in the Transkei. Paying tribute to Dywili, before handing the award to her daughter, eminent musicologist Andrew Tracey said: “In making this award, received on Dywili’s behalf by her daughter Thulisa, I would like to think it is also in recognition of all other women in South Africa who have confidence in themselves and their culture.”
Here is a full rundown of the Arts& Culture Trust Awards 2002 winners:
Arts Administrator of the Year: Rashid Lombard (Sponsored by Old Mutual)
Arts & Culture Journalist of the Year: Themba ka Mathe (Sponsored by Sun International)
Media in Support of the Arts (electronic and print): Hola, Sowetan Sunday World (Sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation)
Arts & Culture Publicist of the Year: Rodney Lentit and Tin Can Communication (Sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation)
Cultural Development Project of the Year (including education): Remix Theatre Company (Sponsored by Sasol)
International Arts & Culture Sponsor of the Year: The British Council
Arts & Culture Trust Best Practice Project: Field Band Foundation (Sponsored by the Arts & Culture Trust)
Lifetime Achievemnet Award: NoFinish Dywili (Sponsored by South African Breweries)
In his endorsement of the awards, Trevor Ncube, Chairman and Chief Executive of M&G Media Ltd issued the following statement:
The Mail & Guardian is proud to be associated with the Arts & Culture Trust and Nedbank in their ongoing endeavour to bestow accolades on the finest of the country’s cultural practitioners with these awards. This is the second year of our partnership with the Arts & Culture Trust, and Nedbank, and even in this short time we have learnt much from the Trust in its commitment to assisting culture at its grass roots, and in the professions.
We hope that the Mail & Guardian will continue as a media partner for the Arts & Culture Trust Awards. Our arts section itself is a previous award winner and so we fully appreciate the honour of receiving the highest praise from the distinguished judges.
We congratulate all of this year’s winners and we look forward to keeping you abreast of the work of the Arts & Culture Trust in the coming year.