The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) and Nedbank have announced the first
of two sets of ACT Development Grant recipients for the 2018 funding cycle.
Relaunched in 2018, the ACT Development Grant now features two calls for
discipline-focused applications at different times of the calendar year. This
first set of grants will be for projects and works with a strong visual arts
focus.
ACT CEO Marcus Desando says, ‘We as a trust are very excited about this
new discipline-specific grant system, for it allows us to give opportunities to
artists and organisations in a given discipline. This particular cycle has
yielded an exciting mix of recipient projects and artworks and we look forward
to seeing their impact.”
As the flagship programme of the partnership between ACT and Nedbank,
the ACT Development Grant has supported more than 800 organisations and
projects nationwide over the past 24 years, a contribution valued at more than
R21,000,000 in total. Tobie Badenhorst, Head of Group Sponsorships and Cause
Marketing at Nedbank says, ‘We are excited to be a part of contributing to arts
and culture across South Africa. Nedbank’s brand essence is all about money
experts who do good and this is why we continue to fund the Arts and Culture
Trust, which serves as confirmation of Nedbank’s commitment to growth and
innovation in the arts.’
The grant structure is divided into two parts. Five grants of R30,000
each are disbursed to mid-level or emerging artists and organisations and
another three grants of R80,000 each are disbursed to established artists and
organisations.
This year’s ACT Development Grant recipients for visual arts will make
their contributions to the South African arts and culture sector with a wide
range of projects and works. In the category for mid-level or emerging artists
and organisations, Art for a Healthy Lifestyle will create public artworks in
KwaMashu and Durban from upcycled waste material; Creative Attraction
Activations: Bridging Alexandra & Newtown will connect Alexandra township
and Newtown in Johannesburg’s central business district through the arts;
Moja Zthini will use the visual arts talents of ex-offenders to
encourage Cape Flats communities in the Western Cape to imagine their ideal
neighbourhoods; visual artist Zola Ndimande continues her quest for true
expression as a Zulu female artist with Space of Connection; The Starter Room
will commission South African artists to respond to the colonial history of
botany in South Africa; and the Vrystaat Open Studio Tour will bring art lovers
closer to Bloemfontein artists by arranging studio visits.
With the grant they receive in the category for established artists and
organisations, the Association for Visual Arts will transfer much-needed
exhibition installation skills to unemployed youths; Noble Pictures will create
positive role models for young people with the animation film The Cloud Princess; and VANSA Mpumalanga
will partner with its province’s Department of Culture, Sport and Recreation on
a project decentralising arts from major cities that includes an art map,
workshops and an internship.
Grant recipients:
mid-level or emerging:
Art for a Healthy Lifestyle – Mzansi Art Development Ensemble
Creative Attraction Activations: Bridging Alexandra & Newtown –
Maboneng Township Arts Experience
Moja Zthini – Kollektivo Illuminoso Fresco (KIF)
Space of Connection – Zola Ndimande
Starter Room – POOL
VROST: Vrystaat Open Studio Tour – Louis Krüger
Grant recipients:
Established artists and organisations
Installation Crew Training Project – Association for Visual Arts
The Cloud Princess – Noble Pictures
VANSA Mpumalanga and Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport and
Recreation Partnership Project – VANSA Mpumalanga and the Mpumalanga Department
of Culture, Sport and Recreation
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