The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) is
pleased to announce the 20th edition of the ACT Awards. The five winners of the
ACT Lifetime Achievement Awards will each be interviewed by Emcee, KayaFM DJ
Bridget Masinga.
With just over a month to go before the
20th anniversary edition of The ACT Awards, which takes place at the Sun
International Maslow Hotel in Sandton Johannesburg on November 17, 2017, ACT is
able to give the awards audience a first-hand account of the stories of the
Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
On the evening, a total of six awards will
be given out. This includes the five Lifetime Achievement Award winners listed
below, as well as the announcement of the ImpACT award winner from four
finalists. Unlike the Lifetime Achievement Awards Winners, the ImpACT Award
winner will only be revealed on the evening of November 17.
“It is important to The Arts & Culture
Trust to ensure that we keep pushing the arts and cultural landscape of South
Africa forward by creating this pivotal space for recognition in the industry,”
says ACT CEO, Marcus Desando. “Therefore, the theme of this year’s awards is
celebrating South African legends, and will pay tribute not only to the current
Lifetime Achievement Award winners but also some of the great names that ACT
has acknowledged over the years, such as Miriam Makeba, Johnny Clegg, Dr
Mongane Wally Serote, Adv. Albie Sachs, Pieter-Dirk Uys, John Kani, Esther
Mahlangu, Es’kia Mphahlele, Gibson Kente, David Koloane, Pops Mohamed, Sam
Nzima and Nadine Gordimer to name a few.”
ACT is pleased to be able to briefly share
in the significant accomplishments and hardships of this year’s winners as
their stories serve as an inspiration and reminder of the importance of the
arts and culture sector in South Africa, perhaps now more than ever. “Our hope
is that the general public will grasp this opportunity to experience these
South African legends tell their stories, as well as to be entertained by
Bridget Masinga and Lira,” says ACT Marketing Manager and Fundraiser, Storm
Jade Brown.
The Arts & Culture Trust 2017 Lifetime
Achievement Award winners are as follows:
Arts
Advocacy
Lindiwe Mabuza was born in 1939 to humble
beginnings. She has achieved international renown for her work as a fierce
advocate for the anti-apartheid movement and as the voice of the black woman
through her collaborative poetry anthologies Malibongwe (1980) and One
Never Knows: An Anthology of Black South African Women Writers in Exile (1989).
She has served as Chief Representative for the African National Congress and is
the recipient of several international graduate degrees, an honorary
professorship, as well as the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for her work in arts
in culture with The Amandla Cultural Ensemble. The Arts Advocacy award is made
possible by Creative Feel Magazine.
Dance
Adele Blank is a dancer trained in the
Cecchetti method of classical dance and she has contributed significantly to
the industry as both a dancer and choreographer. Blank was choreographer for
the 8+One Company, which was one of the first companies to feature a black
dancer on the same platform as a white dancer. She was elected the Director of
Dance and Choreography at Performing Arts Workshop, which later evolved into
Free Flight Dance Company – now a leading professional dance company in South
Africa. The Dance award is made possible
by JT International.
Visual
Arts
Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of The
Handspring Puppet Company met at Michaelis School of Fine Art in 1981. Their
early work was based primarily on creating and carrying out a travelling
theatre roadshow for schools in South Africa. After the State of Emergency was
declared in 1985, Jones and Kohler began designing sets and puppets for
children’s television and then went on to establish the not-for-profit company,
The Handspring Trust. In addition, through The Handspring Trust they raised
funding from international donors to make a multi-media science programme that
was internationally lauded Today, they are best known for their ten-year
collaboration with William Kentridge on productions such as Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa,
Ubu and the Truth Commission, Il Rituron d’Ulisse and Confessions of a Zeno. In 2011, The Handspring Puppet Company
collaborated with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain and produced the
now internationally famous War Horse. Today,
they continue their outreach and community development programmes throughout
South Africa and are the recipients of numerous arts and theatre awards, as
well as an honorary D.Lit. from The University of Cape Town. The Visual Arts
award is made possible by Nedbank Arts Affinity.
Music
Dorothy Masuku was already a top recording
star by the tender age of 16, and left Zimbabwe to make it big in Johannesburg.
During this period she wrote and performed the classic South African song Hamba Nontsokolo. From there, Masuku’s
career continued to blossom as she was given many principal roles and solo
performances accompanied by close-harmony groups and big bands. Her songs spoke
to a moment of turbulence and hardship that was township life in apartheid
South Africa in the 1950s and resonated. Due to this, she later fled South
Africa and continued her political work through her music in places like
Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and even London. After the release of Nelson Mandela, Masuku
returned to Johannesburg and took up her professional singing career once
again. The Music award is made possible
by South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO).
Literature
James Matthews was born in 1929 in District
Six, Cape Town. Despite gruelling apartheid circumstances and lack of a formal
education, Matthews managed to publish his first writing at the age of 17 in
1946. From there he went on to work as a journalist and is best known for his
political writing, which explored the reality of the working-class Cape Flats
population under the Group Areas Act of apartheid law. Through his writing,
Matthews became the leading voice of the Black Consciousness Philosophy and his
works, including Cry Rage
(co-authored by Gladys Thomas in 1972) were amongst the first to be banned. In
1976, Matthews was arrested and denied a passport. After his release he was
more determined than ever and started publishing house BLAC (Black Literature,
Culture and Society) as well as the first black-owned art gallery. Matthews’
writing has earned him international respect in Germany and Iowa in the United
States. He is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate as well as a Governmental
honour. Today, Matthews still lives in the Cape Flats where he actively
promotes South African literature and engages in a variety of community
projects. The Literature award is made possible by Dramatic, Artistic and Literary
Rights Organisation (DALRO).
To book tickets for the 20th edition of the
ACT Awards, tickets are available at http://www.act.org.za/blog/act-awards-20-year-celebration-tickets/
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