ACT AWARDS 2010: WINNERS

The winners of the prestigious ACT Awards were announced in November.

The recipients of the ACT Lifetime Achievement Awards 2010 are industry veterans: Peter Clarke for Visual Arts; Gcina Mhlope for Theatre and Pops Mohamed for Music.

“We salute the three recipients of these awards. ACT is privileged to be in a position to honour the achievements of these exemplary individuals who have served the arts with vision and commitment“, said ACT chairperson, Brenda Devar.

The prestigious ACT Lifetime Achievement Awards honour Arts professionals whose extraordinary careers have had a profound and lasting impact on arts, culture and heritage and whose lifetime achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of cultural life in South Africa. These awards are sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation (the Visual Art Award); the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) (the Music award) and the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) (the Theatre Award).

Peter Clarke’s artistic career spans many decades and he has unsurprisingly, produced a large number of works and appeared in many exhibitions. He received his award from Joseph Gaylard, ACT Trustee and Ebrahim Hassim, Vodacom Foundation Manager.

Themi Venturas, ACT Trustee together with Gérard Robinson, the Executive Director of DALRO presented Gcina Mhlope with her award. Mhlope is best known for her charismatic performances, where she says she does most of her important work, using Storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read.

The esteemed musician, Pops Mohamed, a well-travelled, multi-instrumentalist, who has taken it upon himself to keep traditional sounds alive and is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s living legends of music received his award from ACT Trustee, Jayesperi Moopen and the CEO of SAMRO, Nick Motsatse

This year, together with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Awards, was the inaugural presentation of the ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals. The four ImpACT Awards are proudly sponsored by Distell Foundation and were presented to the winners by ACT Chairperson Brenda Devar and Rupert Hermanus, HR Manager from Distell.

The ImpACT Awards were awarded to Johannesburg based artist Musa Nxumalo (Visual Arts); Kyla Davis, founder and Artistic Director of Well Worn Theatre (Theatre); UCT Honours student and flautist Monique van Willingh (Music and Singing) and LIV Green Design (Design) which focuses on sustainable urban design.

The nomination process for the ImpACT awards is open to the public and every year a fresh panel of judges is convened. The 2010 Awards panel was made up of Anriette Chorn, manager of SAMRO’s Endowment for the National Arts, Christina Wiese, David Koloane, a past ACT Lifetime Achievement Award winner (2008 Visual Art), past ACT Trustee Jill Waterman and freelance casting director, Libé Ferreira.

The 2010 ACT Awards were sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), and supported by Classicfeel Magazine and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) with the ImpACT Awards being sponsored by the Distell Foundation.

The Arts & Culture Trust also took the opportunity to announce the launch of the brand new ACT Building Blocks Programme, in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the event. More information at www.act.org.za