THEATRE
POPArt – Winner
POPArt is an independent theatre space and a production company in the Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg, run by Hayleigh Evans and Orly Shapiro. The theatre opened in March 2011 and has since showcased over 100 brand new theatre works. In 2015, they launched POPArt productions, which produces in-house, cutting-edge works. Evans and Shapiro both studied acting at AFDA and work in the performing arts industry as practising professionals. POPArt has made a significant impact on the theatre industry in Johannesburg. By creating new and relevant content the space is now providing sustainable employment for performers while developing a wide audience base.
Quintin Wils – Finalist
Theatre director Quintin Wils graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology with an honours in Drama. After just two years in the industry he has directed 13 professional productions, won two awards and has been nominated for a further nine awards, including three Naledi Theatre Awards. Wils was named as one of the Rising Stars of the 2014 National Arts Festival and one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans. He is currently the artistic director of both AbstrACT Productions and VNA Productions.
Thenx – Finalist
Thenx is a sketch comedy group made up of four young women who met at the University of the Witwatersrand. Kitty Moepang (26), Tumy Motsoatsoe (27), MoMo Matsunyane (27), and Zethu Dlomo (26) are passionate about creating work that holds up a critical mirror to society. They use satire and parody to portray the tensions and struggles of everyday life in a comical way. Thenx recently hosted the 5th Annual Savannah Comics’ Choice Awards held at Teatro, Montecasino and their most popular shows include The Triple M Mammmas! as well as The People Shall Kurk!
DESIGN
Laurie Wiid van Heerden — Winner
Laurie Wiid van Heerden was born in 1987 in Cape Town. After gaining ample practical experience in the field of design and manufacturing and also being the assistant to Wim Botha for almost three years, Wiid Design was officially created. The business started designing and producing products from 2010.
Skillfully combining traditional handcrafting and avant-garde techniques, Wiid transforms materials into life‐enriching and durable furniture such as stools, benches, side tables, planters and dining tables, as well as lighting and tableware.
His large-scale, limited edition benches have garnered global attention at Design Days Dubai, Design Miami/Basel in Switzerland and Design Miami in the US, exhibited as part of the prestigious Southern Guild portfolio. He often works with artists and designers including Lionel Smit, Wim Botha, Atang Tshikare, dhk Architects and Ceramic Matters.Van Heerden received the “maker to market” award at the annual Southern Guild Design Foundation awards ceremony in 2013. Wiid Design was also awarded the Conde Nast House & Garden award for production excellence in South African design at 100% Design South Africa 2014 and the Best Lighting Design award at 100% Design 2015.
Shawn Lukas – Finalist
Shawn Lukas is a designer by day, composer by night, and illustrator in between. His work is largely influenced by human behaviour and relationships towards the planet’s resources and living beings. From painting and animation to games and picture books, Lukas’s work takes many forms. As a simplicity major and long time collaborator, he has worked with boxworM and ICRD Group Holdings, on projects as such as Trees+Rhinos, which C2-MTL shortlisted to the World’s 20 Innovative ideas in 2013.
He has taught visual arts and design at the Johannesburg Performing Arts Academy. In addition, Lukas has also explored the use of the web as an exhibition platform, hand-coding responsive sites and typography. He writes regularly and shares his passions on his website. Born and brought up in Taung, North West, Lukas now lives and works in Johannesburg.
Sphiwe Giba – Finalist
Sphiwe Giba is a Johannesburg-based illustrator with a broad knowledge and understanding of trends and movements. Founder of the company Juxtapoz Concepts, Giba thrives on the concepts of innovation and research, which is seen throughout his extensive body of creative work, which includes public sculptures, branding and textile and product designs.
MUSIC & SINGING
Lindiwe Maxolo – Winner
Known for her enchanting voice, Lindiwe Maxolo is the 2014 Mbokodo Women in Jazz award winner. A jazz music honours graduate from the University of Cape Town, her debut solo jazz album Time has earned multiple award nominations: The South African Traditional Music Awards 2014 Best African Jazz Album, and the Wawela Music Awards 2014/2015 Best Creative Album of the Year and Best Female Artist Composer. She was also nominated for a South African Music Award in 2013 and is the winner of the 2002 Afro Vocal Category in the Old Mutual Jazz Encounters Competition.
Tumi Mogorosi – Finalist
Johannesburg-born Tumi Mogorosi (28) is increasingly building a reputation on the South African jazz scene. He is a Sama award nominee and 2014 Standard Bank Ovation award recipient. Besides his intermittent formal studies at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) which he completed in 2012, the young drummer has refined his brush strokes alongside prominent South African jazz greats like trumpeter Feya Faku, bassist Herbie Tsoaeli and pianist Andile Yenana. Mogorosi was part of the Gauteng Jazz Orchestra which opened the stage for American trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the 2011 Joy of Jazz Festival. More remarkable is Mogorosi’s fresh, bold offering as a composer on his debut album Project Elo, which was re-released in London by Jazzman Records in June 2014. Mogorosi toured France in 2014 and performed at the TransMusicales Festival in Renne.
Thandi Ntuli – Finalist
University of Cape Town graduate Thandi Ntuli started playing the piano at the age of four. Her professional career has included doing work with Judith Sephuma, The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Jimmy Dludlu, Thandiswa Mazwai, Andy Narell, Selaelo Selota, Neo Muyanga, Marcus Wyatt, Nomfundo Xaluva, Steve Dyer, QB Smith (UK), Zara McFarlane (UK), SirLSG, Nils Janson (SWE) and Lex Futshane.
Her studio work includes recording on Lwanda Gogwana’s debut album Chapter One, which was nominated for three South African Music Awards and on Steve Dyer’s album Confluence. Her own studio jazz album, The Offering, which was launched in 2014, has received critical acclaim and received many award nominations including a MetroFM award in 2015 and a Mbokodo Award in both 2014 and 2015.
She has performed on various local and international stages, including The Cape Town International Jazz Festival, The Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, the Grahamstown Youth Jazz Festival in 2015, The Calabar International Jazz Festival in Nigeria and the Arts Alive festival.
VISUAL ARTS
Benon Lutaaya – Winner
Johannesburg-based artist Benon Lutaaya was unable to afford art supplies, so he improvised with found waste paper material from the streets of Johannesburg. Within four years, his career started making waves. He featured in the 2015 Bright Young Things section in Art Africa magazine, is a co-sponsor of the 2015 Reinhold Cassirer Award, is an annual contributor to Ithuba Arts Fund, a recipient of the 2016 European-based residency award by the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, received a 2015 grant from Business and Arts South Africa and the Ithuba Arts Fund grant, has a Bag Factory residency, is a Lovell Gallery Artists Competition winner, and is a finalist in the BBC MyWorld documentary competition.
Fortune Bengu – Finalist
Fortune Bengu was born in Ulundi, South Africa in 1989. Bengu primarily works as an arts administrator, but also as a curator and artist. Bengu completed a B-Tech degree in Fine Art at the Durban University of Technology. He has participated in many exhibitions locally and abroad and has curated a number of successful exhibitions.
He is the newly appointed vice-chair of the executive committee of the Friends of the Durban Art Gallery. He lives and works in Durban.
Loyiso Mkize – Finalist
Loyiso Mkize is a South African visual artist and was born in Butterworth. He studied at Cape Peninsula Universitiy of Technology, where he achieved a diploma qualification in graphic design. He recently founded his own visual arts and communication company Loyiso Mkize Art which publishes the energetic South African superhero comic book, Kwezi. He also illustrates the Supa Strikas comic that is in Sunday World, You, Drum and Huisgenoot every month. When Mkize is not illustrating comics, he paints.
DANCE
Letlhogonolo Nche – Winner
Letlhogonolo Nche graduated from Moving Into Dance in 2009. In 2010 he started to work as a freelancer and taught at companies such as Virgin Active South Africa and schools such as Pabalelo Primary and Olehile Secondary. He got the opportunity to perform in a piece choreographed by Thabo Rapoo at the launch of Big Brother Africa and the show was broadcast live on MNet. He continued to perform MIDM’s repertoires while as student, choreographed by world renowned choreographer Gregory Maqoma.
Nche became a choreographer under the Youth Choreographers Professional Development Programme from 2012 to date, facilitated by Alfred Hinkel and John Linden. Through this programme Letlhogonolo was selected to choreograph works for Dance Umbrella in 2013 and this year in 2014. His first Dance Umbrella piece was Battle Field and this year he choreographed Violence My Foot. In 2013 he founded Northern Cape Dance Pages, a dance festival in partnership with Mayibuye Dance Academy. Nche is currently working in a collaboration with Tshepo Molusi and Isaac Lartey from Ghana. Titled One, it will premier at the Northern Cape Dance Pages this September.
Sunnyboy Motau – Finalist
Named in the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans set to shape the future, the dynamic powerhouse of Sunnyboy Motau has set his course for the stars. Beginning in community arts groups in Alexandra, he formally trained at Moving into Dance, and continues to dance and choreograph there. His collaborative commission at the Dance Umbrella 2015 was among the top three pieces at the festival.
He is currently in talks with the Market Theatre for a collaborative theatre piece to be staged there. He is also in collaboration with Jessica Nupen in a piece called Romeo and Juliet “rebellion in Johannesburg” which is currently running in five German cities.
Angelique Harris – Finalist
Angelique Harris has represented South Africa with great pride over the past 10 years. Ranked 11th in the world for Rhythmic Gymnastics in 2005, she went on to be the only South African to study at the Royal Ballet School, Whitelodge, London in 20 years. As a young South African choreographer her works have received the Drum Café Choreographic Award, South African International Ballet Competition contemporary gold medal, Youth America Grand Prix New York silver medal, CIBC USA contemporary and musicality award and the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition New York bronze contemporary medal.
Honorary ImpACT Award — Jessica Denyschen
28-year-old Jessica Denyschen is co-founder and director of The Ar(t)chive, South Africa’s first comprehensive archive for contemporary dance. She has worked successfully as a creative artist in dance and film since graduating with a master’s degree from University of the Witwatersrand in 2010. She founded the organisation in 2012 along with head researcher Adrienne Sichel. The Ar(t)chive is currently located in the School of Arts, at Wits University and the takes the form of documents, collections, clippings, programmes, artifacts, photographs and videos spanning four decades.
ACT for dynamism in the arts
South Africa’s Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) has a rich history of stimulating positive change on the local arts and culture landscape. Commonly known as ACT, the Trust has supported over 800 arts and culture projects across South Africa to the value of more than R20 million since its inception in 1994.
The ACT Awards are held annually to celebrate excellence in South African arts, culture and creativity. The awards include Lifetime Achievement awards for Theatre, Music, Dance, Visual Arts and Literature, as well as ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals in the first five years of their professional careers.