ACT AWARDS OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS

The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) is recognising and celebrating excellence in South African arts, culture and creativity.

The annual ACT Awards 2011 is presented by the Vodacom Foundation, the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) and the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO).

“The visual arts provide us as a nation with a dynamic and vivid reflection of our artistic and cultural life. As a proud sponsor of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art, Vodacom Foundation pays tribute to the creativity an excellence of our visual artists in expressing their vision,” says Mthobi Tyamzashe, Executive Director of Corporate Social Investment at Vodacom.

Three Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to luminaries for their lifelong contribution to theatre, music and visual arts in South Africa. Winners are nominated and selected by the ACT Trustees. Past recipients of this accolade include Miriam Makeba, John Kani, Gcina Mhlophe, Ronnie Govender, Peter Clarke, Joseph Shabalala, Pops Mohamed, Lynette Marais, David Goldblatt and David Koloane, amongst others.

Sponsored by the Distell Foundation, ACT also presents four ImpACT Awards to emerging artists at a time in their careers when they have shown commitment to, and reached some professional standing in, their chosen discipline. Young professional artists, up to the age of 30 years that fall within the first three years of their professional careers are eligible for nomination.

Awards will be presented in four broad arts categories with selected disciplines being eligible for consideration in each. The categories include Visual Art (painting and printmaking, sculpting, public installations & photography); Performing Arts (dance, acting, musical theatre & physical theatre); Music & Singing (classical, contemporary & jazz), and Design (craft, graphic design, fashion design & web design)

Winners of the ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals are selected by an independent panel of judges. Awards will only be presented if a satisfactory number of quality nominations are received in the various categories and the adjudication panel reserves the right to carry over such awards to the following year.

The closing date for nominations is July 29. For guidelines and nomination forms visit the ACT website at www.act.org.za

The ACT Awards 2011 is supported by Classicfeel Magazine and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA).