The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) has
announced the first recipients of funding from its newly structured
Professional Development Programme, funded by Nedbank’s Arts Affinity
Programme.
ACT identified a desperate need for
consistent long-term support of the infrastructure that enables arts and
culture production and programming. Three-year grants are intended to make a
meaningful impact on the capacity and sustainability of South African arts and
culture organisations, and have been made towards:
-PANSA (The Performing Arts Network of
South Africa) to extend their national footprint,
-Flatfoot Dance Company, to be used for
Business Management Skills Development
-Jungle Theatre Company to support their
‘ground and grow’ work producing theatre for youth.
Once-off grants were made in support of:
-The
Boabab, a site-responsive eco-play produced through collaboration between
South African Well Worn, Jungle and Zambian-based Seka Theatre Companies
-Athari Arts String Quartet performances in
Johannesburg; a new collaborative art piece by 2013 Standard Bank Young Artist
Award Winner for Performance Art Anthea Moys, featuring 35 contemporary dancers
conducted by an orchestral conductor, and entitled The Conductor
-a new contemporary dance work by
Underground Dance Theatre called BOK;
-audience development activities under the
banner of the Fordsburg Artists’ Studios/The Bag Factory.
ACT and Nedbank Arts Affinity have
deliberately focused on supporting projects in under-served areas in the
country. For this round of allocations, these projects include research into
the life of 1970s student activist Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, which will result in
a theatre script by Tiego Shametja (Northwest/Limpopo); a series of exhibitions
of artworks in Nelson Mandela Bay, entitled Wish
You Were Here; the development of a new production by Roots of Rhythm
Tribal Drum & Dance group, based in Limpopo, and empowering local artists
to become professional income earners through performance; and The Platteland
Preview Festival in Smithfield, Free State, which serves as a Halfway House for
artists and their productions or exhibitions on the way their way to the
National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
“As we celebrate and reflect on 20 years of
democracy and particularly the roles of the arts and culture in society, we
should be spurred on to work even harder to build a legacy through creating a
more enabling environment for the arts and culture,” says Maseda Ratshikuni,
Head: Nedbank Cause Marketing.
Choreographer Steven van Wyk, of
Underground Dance Theatre says: “It is inspiring to be recognised by ACT as an
emerging and important new voice in South African theatre. Vaslav Nijinsky's Afternoon of a Faun is an important
historical landmark that, in 1912, stood for progress and provocation,
challenging notions of what is dance and what is beautiful. BOK filters Nijinky's ballet through the
lens of contemporary South Africa, asking the same questions in a different
context,” adding that ACT's grant allows him to develop a high-quality,
full-length South African ballet by collaborating with the dancers, costume
designer and composer that he could only ever have dreamed about.
ACT Programme Coordinator Deidré Schoeman
says: “The first set of applications for projects to be funded through our
newly restructured Professional Development Programme have been exciting to
receive. It is really inspiring to see funding proposals aligning with our
vision to support a vibrant and sustainable industry, and the production of
high quality new South African work.”
For more information on the Arts &
Culture Trust, visit http://www.act.org.za/
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