(The winners of the 25th Annual BASA Awards. Image by Theana Breugem)
BASA Awards light the way for new arts-business collabs, from graffiti art to ‘crowns’ and more - By Christina Kennedy
“Lights up – time to shine” was the theme of the 25th annual Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) Awards, partnered by Hollard. And the lights certainly came to the party as the historic Villa Arcadia in Parktown was illuminated in dazzling star-spangled violet to celebrate what BASA CEO Ashraf Johaardien called the creative economy’s “return to live”.
Held on 29 August 2022, the awards took the form of an in-person event (that was also live-streamed) for the first time since 2019. They reward sustainable, innovative and productive partnerships between businesses and arts organisations, with the emphasis being on collaborations that are a catalyst for creativity and generate jobs, benefit all parties and enrich society.
The projects celebrated this year truly epitomise diversity, said Johaardien. “It shows that BASA’s footprint is very national and super-diverse. What was lovely tonight was to see new winners entering the frame, which was very heartening.”
An example of this is the First-Time Sponsor Award, won by Jaguar South Africa and #GiveHerACrown, a project that saw 16 artists creating bespoke “crowns”, the proceeds of which fund digital kits to help teachers champion gender equality in schools.
Hollard Group Executive for Brand, Heidi Brauer, believes creative partnerships such as this can “get people to see things differently”. She said, “To have everyone at our home, Villa Arcadia [a Sir Herbert Baker-designed stately home on the Hollard campus], and to be together for the first time in three years is just spectacular. Being together – that’s what the arts is about. It’s about connecting and creating.”
Graffiti art is a case in point. Urban Space Management’s Nonkululeko Hadebe and MojaNation’s Farai Mafurirano received the Community Development and SMME awards for their organisations’ work on the Newtown Improvement District’s revitalisation project. The entities had previously worked together on a “placemaking” project in Berea, Johannesburg – the term referring to the global drive to beautify gritty urban areas to become a magnet for tourism and creative investment.
“If you beautify a place, the residents of that area take pride in it and they themselves will help keep it clean. It also helps keep crime away,” Mafurirano explained. “Newtown, which is designated as a graffiti area, was a similar project to bring it back to its glory days. Our mandate was to use art to beautify the area and to clean up the graffiti that had become a bit grungy.”
During the height of lockdown, they enlisted graffiti artist Dbongz and other “taggers” to paint massive murals of jazz artists on M1 highway pillars, as well as a two-storey portrait of Miriam Makeba – “as a homage to the graffiti culture and musical culture of the area”.
Hadebe said the rejuvenation project, funded by the Johannesburg mayor’s office, is bringing tourists back to the area – with youngsters using the new “piano key” walkway on Mary Fitzgerald Square in their TikTok videos. “It’s about making more areas in the CBD walkable. We want every part of the city to have that playfulness and that sense of ownership by the community.”
Nando’s, which owns the largest collection of South African contemporary art in the world, picked up two awards – including the Long-Term Partnership Award for the Nando’s Creative Exchange, with the Spier Arts Trust.
Kirsty Niehaus, who runs the Nando’s creativity portfolio, outlined how this 20-year-plus collaboration works: “Spier Arts Trust, as the curator of our collection, finds artists and puts them through artist development programmes to upskill and mentor them, and nurture their professional careers.
“And that’s really where the value is: it’s not just a transactional relationship where we buy art and put it on the walls of our restaurants; it’s about changing creatives’ lives in a meaningful way for long-term benefit. In that way, we both win – because as those careers develop, the value of our collection goes up, so it’s a win-win shared-value relationship.”
Nando’s and Spier, with the Bridges for Music Academy and Clout/SA, also won the Corporate Social Investment Award for the Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival at Constitution Hill. Tracy Lynch, the creative director of Clout/SA and of the Nando’s Design Programme, explained that the festival showcases the work of emerging young designers – such as lights, chairs, servers and “all sorts of beautiful pieces”.
“Every year at Basha, we share aspects of the business of design with young creatives, showcase the beautiful work of emerging designers and engage with the creative public, so they have the opportunity to learn from our established design community. When young designers are given opportunities, they really flourish,” she said.
Partnerships needn’t be of the monetary variety – in-kind support is just as valuable. Johannesburg’s National School of the Arts (NSA) faced a conundrum during the pandemic: where to safely stage performances by their young creatives? Enter technical specialist Splitbeam, which helped create the Dome@NSA – an outdoor venue where Covid-safe open-air performances could take place.
NSA artistic director Brenda Sakellarides, accepting the Sponsorship in Kind Award on the night, thanked the company: “In those dark and fearful times, you brought hope to young performers at the NSA. We had the privilege of being able to produce magic in that special space, which we created with fear at bay and with unbridled enthusiasm. Thank you for inspiring scores of young creatives.”
From urban graffiti taggers to a virtual “museum of plastic” and more, the BASA Awards are proof that sparks of creativity fly when kindred minds meet. As Johaardien pointed out after the awards, “Often, people think business lives on this planet; art lives on that planet. Tonight we saw the evidence of how they can come together, with a gorgeous musical celebration of art and business and what collaboration can do.”
Find the full list of winners here: https://basa.co.za/news/awards25-winners/
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