This year’s nominees and judges for the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) Awards, held in association with the Mail & Guardian and Nedbank, have been announced. They are:
Arts Administrator of the Year
David Barritt (Marulelo Communications/Revolution Events)
Shadrack Bokaba (South African Music Education Trust)
Nicolette du Plessis (Cultural Radius)
Journalist of the Year:
Michelle Constant (SAfm/SABC and Condé Nast/GQ magazine)
Maureen Isaacson (Sunday Independent)
Sandile Memela (Sunday World)
Media of the Year (Internet and print):
SA Art (Student Art Promotions)
Screen Africa
Supastage
Media of the Year (radio and television):
Classic FM for Live with the JPO
Fine Music Radio for Sunday at Seven and other programmes
Khwezi Community Radio for Indlela ibuzwa Kwabaphambili (Let’s hear from the experts)
Kyknet for Kunskafee
Publicist of the Year:
Taryn Fisher (Taryn Fritz Public Relations and Communications)
Otto Moloto (Market Theatre/ Creative Native Concepts)
Bridget van Oerle (Buz Publicity)
Cultural Development Project of the Year:
Bees Consulting Group for the KwaZulu-Natal Music Cluster Project
Dance For All
Ikhwezi Community Theatre Festival facilitated by the Baxter Theatre Centre
Arts Education Project of the Year:
The ACT introduced a new category this year — Arts Education Project of the Year. In the running are:
Curriculum Development Project/ Wits School of Arts Partnership
First Words in Print
Imbali Visual Literacy Project
Most Successful ACT-funded Project of the Year:
The Most Successful ACT-funded Project of the Year is an important category because it pays tribute to those organisations or projects that have achieved a measure of sustainability and high artistic merit and have been funded by ACT at some point in time. In the running are:
Artist Proof Studio
Cape Town Month of Photography (MoP — South African Centre for Photography)
South African Library for the Blind
The winner of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, which carries a R30 000 prize, will be announced on the night of the awards ceremony. Previous winners include Nofinishi Dywili, Gibson Kente, Professor Es’kia Mphahlele, Percy Ban-eshik and Professor Mzilikazi Khumalo.
The panel of judges decided not to award the Sponsor of the Year category as they did not feel the entries received corresponded to the criteria laid out by the ACT.
The awards will once again be hosted by Nedbank on November 4 at the Nedcor Building in Sandown.
The judges for this year’s awards are Vanessa Cooke, director of the Market Theatre Laboratory; Ryan Fortune, arts editor of ThisDay; Martin Koboekae, writer, director and artistic director of Dramatists Against Crime; and Gobingca George Mxadana, music director and conductor of the Imilonji KaNtu Choral Society. The panel was impressed with the range and high standard of entries.