The province’s foremost contemporary art gallery,
the visionary 108 year-old KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts (KZNSA) Gallery in
Durban’s Glenwood, is proactively undergoing a process of extreme restructuring
and radical transformation to ensure its future in a recessionary environment.
Global austerity and ever-diminishing arts
budgets have led to dire financial consequences for many of the city’s favourite
independent arts, culture, theatre and heritage institutions with many of them
having to streamline their infrastructure and minimise their operations in
order to keep their doors open. The KZNSA Gallery has embarked on an extreme
exercise with far-reaching consequences in order to remain solvent in the short
term, and plan for growth and sustainability in the medium to long terms.
“We have had to reduce our expenses and
rationalise our free public services, and be more creative to maximise our
potential profit centres,” explains KZNSA Gallery CEO, Trevor Moore.
The KZNSA is a not-for-profit,
member-based, public benefit organisation, with an additional Section 18 A
Status. In effect, the KZNSA is an arts and culture education service provider
governed by a democratically elected council, with specialist ad-hoc
committees.
Identified areas of growth currently under
the spotlight are the popular arts cafe and the bouquet of functions and events
on offer at the gallery. To action these changes, the responsibilities of
volunteer board members will be increased.
The cafe will undergo a carefully-planned
makeover, with a revamped menu, extended trading hours and a more streamlined
management approach being on the cards. Alan Heyns, who was a top chef in the
UK for almost two decades, has returned to his home town to spearhead the
transformation, re-structure the menu and develop the quaint al-fresco family
cafe. He will be assisted and supported by KZNSA Gallery board member, George
Thorne.
Existing successful events and functions
will be extended - with the fun Friday Play Date, offering family-friendly
supper and live entertainment every second Friday, allowing parents and
children time and space to enjoy an evening out in a safe and child-friendly
environment. Outdoor movie-dates will continue, making use of the mild Durban
weather to host cafe meals and outdoor film screenings of classic, vintage and
indie movies. Also one-off themed functions, like the fabulous Audience with
Evita, held recently, will continue.
The ever-popular KZNSA Gallery Shop will
remain as is, under the watchful eye of board member and businessman, Peter
Avis. The gallery scheduling which offers a myriad innovative and cutting edge
exhibitions will continue - being monitored by board member Garth Radmore.
“Regrettably, we have had to perform
financial triage. This has meant we have had to amputate crucial parts of the
organisation to save the whole,” explains Moore. “Executive salaries consume
the lion’s share of our meagre resources so, after much deliberation, we have
had to release three senior KZNSA staff members from their full-time employ.”
Trevor Moore, CEO of the organisation will
retire. “I intended to retire last year, and my retirement present from my
extended family is a holiday to visit them abroad. I need to redeem this
wonderful gift, which means I intended to leave the gallery from June this year,
anyway. Of course, I will still support the gallery in whatever way I can in a
pro-bono capacity on my return.”
Gloria Hoff is a much loved “institution”
in the extended arts family in Durban. “Although she formally leaves the
full-time employ of the gallery this month after having been responsible for
the shop for more than three decades, every effort is going to be made to
ensure Gloria remains a vital part of the organisation,” explains Moore.
Bren Brophy, the visionary gallery curator,
will be released from his full-time employ but will continue to curate events
and exhibitions in the gallery on a project-to-project basis as funds allow.
Peter McKenzie, KZNSA President and
Programme Manager for the innovative Durban Centre for Photography, paid
tribute to these three remarkable, community-driven, outstanding and capable
individuals: “It is with sincere regret that Trevor, Gloria and Bren formally
have to leave the full-time employ of the gallery but we are delighted that
they are prepared to continue their work with the gallery in a different
capacity and we are hopeful that a meaningful relationship with all of them
will continue well into the gallery’s future,” he explained. “It’s a sad irony
that just as the institution has embarked on the vital strategies of
transformation, activation and incubation, those entrusted to foster these
changes are forced by circumstance to move on. As council we need to redouble
our efforts to continue this critical injunction to make the KZNSA more
relevant to its context and constituency.”
The Gallery management and board continues
to invest huge energy into its fundraising and partnership initiatives to
endeavour to ensure that this multi-faceted community arts organisation can
continue to offer an excellent service to the city’s arts community and
supporters.
The KZNSA is a registered non-profit
organization, reg no. 004-833 NPO, and is registered with SARS as a Public
Benefit Organization (PBO) 18/11/13/2597. To help or to find out more
information, contact administrator, Emmeline Young on 031 277 1705 or email: gallery@kznsagallery.co.za
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