The Arts & Culture Trust announces the mentors
for its ACT Nyoloha Scholarship Programme
For the 2023 edition of the Nyoloha Scholarship Programme (NSP), the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) received 80 applications for the following four short-term positions:
1. Visual and digital arts mentor
2. Performing arts assistant mentor
3. Artistic director
4. Stage manager
After weeks of interviews ACT is pleased to
announce the following two mentors:
Fleur De Bondt – Visual and Digital Arts Mentor
Megan Carelse – Performing Arts Assistant Mentor
The ACT NSP artistic director and stage manager will be announced in due course.
In 2022, Fleur De Bondt coordinated VANSA’s Cultural Leadership Programme and acted as project manager for Carling Black Label’s #NoExcuse Art Against Abuse campaign. She has extensive experience in the art community and currently runs her own artist community project, Facture Sessions, where artists who work in isolation could come together and receive free weekly workshops on professional practice.
Megan Carelse is a well-known musical theatre performer, singer, dancer, model, producer, director, teacher and television actress.
De Bondt and Carelse will be joined by seasoned musical theatre actress, singer and dancer Samantha Peo, who makes her return to the programme as Head Performing Arts Mentor, working closely with Carelse to support the roll-out of the performing arts training component.
'We are thrilled to welcome Fleur and Megan to the ACT NSP,' says ACT CEO Jessica Denyschen. 'We look forward to working with them as they impart valuable industry knowledge, theoretical instruction, practical skills and techniques to our participants. They bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in their particular areas of expertise and we value the important roles they will play in contributing to the success of the programme. The impact they will have as they educate and uplift the ACT NSP participants will bring our 2023 Nyoloha theme, ImpACTing Futures to life.'
The ACT NSP is an undergraduate scholarship programme aimed at providing opportunities for qualifying school-leavers to pursue a tertiary qualification in the visual and performing arts. Run in partnership with Nedbank and Sun International, as well as Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), the ACT NSP 2023 joint initiative creates an opportunity to fund higher education for young South African performing artists as well as visual and digital artists. One successful applicant in each category will receive a fully paid undergraduate scholarship valued up to R350,000 to study at an accredited tertiary South African arts institution of their choice.
The theme for the 2023 ACT NSP is ImpACTing Futures. This theme aims to propel the significant responsibility and collaborative role that the ACT and its partners, including Nedbank, Sun International and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), play in shaping the futures of South African youth positively by encouraging them to be proactive agents of a digital, innovative and sustainable future through art.
From June 10 to August 19, 2023, during the bi-weekly Saturday workshops, participants are encouraged to explore activities centred around the 2023 theme, which will be facilitated by the mentors and artistic director. Every month the mentors will evaluate certain tasks. Then the finalists will be selected to participate in a final week of intense training, talks and rehearsals, which will culminate in a showcase and exhibition in Johannesburg on October 7, 2023.
Tobie Badenhorst, Head of Group Sponsorships and Cause Marketing at Nedbank, says: “The ACT NSP’s theme of ImpACTing Futures sums up what we set out to achieve in growing the pipeline of our country’s upcoming artists. In all areas of the arts – visual and digital arts, dance, drama, music, singing and performance – up to 67 young artists will be part of the mentorship programme. They will receive life-changing professional training to help them excel in their artform and to prepare them for the world of work. Self-development, people management, entrepreneurship, marketing and communication skills are all part of the mentorship, as the goal of the programme is to help our young artists to achieve successful and sustainable careers.'
Heidi Edson, Group Socioeconomic Development (SED) Specialist at Sun International, says: “Through the ACT NSP, talented and ambitious young people from across the country are introduced to the world of professional arts as they are taken through a professional mentorship. It is the involvement of partnerships with the ACT, Nedbank and industry experts such as Samantha Peo, Fleur De Bondt and Megan Carelse at the grassroots level that resonates with the programme theme of ImpACTing Futures and the Sun International ethos to uplift, educate and grow talent and skills of young people from across South Africa.'
Let’s keep #ImpACTingFutures for tomorrow! To keep in touch with the ACT, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, or like their Facebook page.
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