The Mail & Guardian has named Arts & Culture Trust
CEO, Pieter Jacobs, on its list of 200 noteworthy and newsworthy young South
Africans for 2015.
Now in its tenth year, the Mail and Guardian’s list of top
200 young South Africans has become the pre-eminent hallmark for acknowledging
and celebrating the who’s who of an emerging generation of professionals at the
forefront in their chosen fields.
A passion for the arts and the desire to improve the lives
of artists is what motivates Jacobs. “To receive this kind of recognition is a
tremendous honour,” he says. “The acknowledgement is deeply humbling. It
encourages me to continue pushing boundaries and also challenges me to try
doing better each day.”
An award-winning playwright, Jacobs first joined the Trust
as a Projects Officer in 2006 and subsequently went on to helm ACT as CEO in
2010. In this role he has consistently increased the amount of funding
disbursed to arts, culture and heritage projects across the country. At the
same time, the value of the Trust’s investment portfolio has grown by 15%
during his tenure.
He has played a vital role in ACT’s strategic planning over
the past few years and has overseen the restructuring of the Trust’s
grant-making programme funded by Nedbank Arts Affinity since 1994. Through this
programme, ACT has funded more than 800 projects nationally with more than R21
million. Under his stewardship, the Trust launched a number of new programmes,
including the ACT Building Blocks Programme, the ACT | DALRO | Nedbank Performing
Arts Scholarships Programme as well as the ACT | UJ Arts & Culture
Conference.
The ACT Building Blocks Programme is aimed at increasing the
sustainability and capacity of South African arts and culture organisations
through grants as well as the presentation of master classes and workshops,
which benefited more than 450 practitioners and numerous local key arts and
culture organisations and institutions. Since the inception of its Performing
Arts Scholarships Programme, the Trust has awarded grants to the value of more
than R1,2 million to young aspirant performers while the Arts & Culture
Conference has not only grown in its scope and stature since its inception in
2012 but has also attracted support of a number of key local and major
international role players, and of which attendance has consistently grown on a
yearly basis.
According to Jacobs, he cannot take all the credit for ACT’s
good work: “The Board of Trustees is hundred percent invested in our work and
is a never-ending source of support, insight and guidance. I have also had the
privilege of working with some of the best arts managers and administrators in
South Africa. Without them, I would not have been able to realise nearly as
much!”
ACT is South Africa’s premier independent arts, culture and
heritage, funding and development agency. For more information and regular
updates find ACT on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/TheArtsandCultureTrust?ref=bookmarks
or follow the Trust on Twitter @actorgza Subscribe to the Trust’s blog at http://www.act.org.za/blog/. Also
connect with Pieter by following @pieter_jacobs
For more information about ACT visit www.act.org.za
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