(Above: Some of the youngsters whose lives are being enriched by the Arts & Culture Trust. Pic supplied)
“I have always loved music and wanted to be a musician from a young age. My mother was concerned about my pursuing such a challenging career where only a few make it. But after I won the Arts & Culture Trust Nyoloha Scholarship, she is super proud of me and very supportive of my pursuing a music qualification.”
These are the words of Naledi Lebelo, the 2023 winner of the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) Nyoloha Scholarship in the Performing Arts category. The Nyoloha Scholarship Programme (NSP) is a partnership between ACT, the Nedbank Arts Affinity and sponsors from Sun International and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA). This partnership annually offers matriculants, school-leavers and young arts practitioners the opportunity to win two fully paid undergraduate scholarships - 1 for the performing arts and 1 for the visual and digital arts, each valued at up to R350,000 for studying at a higher education arts institution of their choice in South Africa.
In the first half of each year, 80 young people are selected from all the performing arts fields and the visual and digital arts to participate in a mentorship programme from June to August. From here the finalists are selected in the build-up to the scholarship awards night in October.
“They are our rising stars,” says Poovi Pillay, Executive Head of Corporate Social Investment (CSI) at Nedbank. “South Africa has an abundance of young artists with wonderful intellectual capacity and potential. This scholarship programme significantly contributes to their growth and talent in the visual arts, digital arts, dance, drama, music, singing and performance.”
Naledi’s higher education choice is a three-year diploma at the Campus of Performing Arts (COPA) in Midrand, Gauteng, where she is busy with her bridging year. “I’m majoring in guitar and vocals, and to do the diploma, you need technical skills, including the ability to read music, which I am learning this year as I previously had no formal music training,” she explains. “In addition to the theory and technical side, I’m learning so much about performance and how to market myself in the music industry and as a product to the world.”
Moving from Bloemfontein to residence life at COPA took some adjustment, but she says she has settled into campus life, made wonderful friends, and is loving her course. “All this has been made possible because the NSP and the ACT Team continue to support, guide and offer me opportunities to perform at events.”
While studying she is working on original compositions and plans to release a song this year called KING on the digital platform DistroKid. “It’s widely used in South Africa, it’s affordable and you get a lot of value from it as it distributes music across a range of music platforms.”
KING, she explains, “is about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is mightier than the strongest winds.” She says she has strong faith “because life is too cruel not to, and because I feel so blessed and lucky. I get to study my number 1 passion, which is music, and I am one step closer to becoming the artist I have always imagined myself to be, impacting people’s hearts and minds.”
Azanda Nyangintsimbi, from Pretoria, is the 2023 scholarship winner in the visual and digital Arts Category, which he is using to pursue a fine arts degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. “Being awarded the scholarship was a pivotal moment for me; it was incredibly validating to have my potential recognised and it enabled me to come to Michaelis,” says Azanda, who is staying in the Leo Marquard residence in Rondebosch.
“I love being in an academic space and learning about all the concepts, movements and theories of art that I never knew about before, such as African modernism and the history of art. I’ve always drawn and now I know about the evolution of drawing. Originally, drawing was not considered an art –it was done in preparation for a painting or sculpture,” explains Azanda, whose primary medium during his high school years was charcoal in what he describes as a hyper-realistic style of drawing.
Encouraged to experiment at Michaelis, he has expanded into photography, printmaking and sculpture – working on the theme of self-perception, which has always interested him. “As part of this, we explore the representation of bodies and gender in art and delve into who traditionally held the power in art in the academies. They were male-dominated and we are challenging these conventions, including what it means to be an artist.”
In July 2024, he is taking part in a group exhibition, the theme of which is Bubbles. “I am exploring the theme through skin, as our skin is like a bubble that holds our fluid, fragile lives inside. I am also working with light and how light relates to how you can see the reflections of bubbles and the colours inside them.”
This is his second exhibition in 2024. The first, called Twilight Horizons, was curated by himself and one of his peers at Michaelis, Morne Oganda, featuring the work of artists from Michaelis and reflecting their diverse cultures and heritages through installations, drawings, sculptures and graffiti.
Also in the visual arts category of the NSP is Thabang Makgakwe from Limpopo, a 2023 scholarship finalist who does digital art, photography, painting and printmaking. He was selected for the BASA Debut Programme, which provides business and entrepreneurial skills development to emerging artists.
Thabang explains: “Every day when I wake up I think about what is next, what is the opportunity, and I apply all over. Prior to the ACT scholarship programme, I applied and was selected for a government-sponsored film and television course at the SABC through the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa. I am now doing the programme with BASA, which is helping me a great deal because, in addition to my art, I launched my own production company called Peu Creative. I do filming, create videos, and scriptwriting.” He also does acting auditions and was recently selected for a KFC advert.
“Being selected as an ACT NSP finalist changed my life in a powerful way,” he says. “I got so much support and mentorship about how to be successful as a young artist, including how to market my work online and on social media. It was also through ACT that I got in contact with BASA. Through my art I’m an activist – I challenge stereotypes and speak out about mental health, cultural and social issues, spirituality, the environment and climate change.”
In May this year, he showcased his work at the ACT offices in Braamfontein through an event called the Contra Joburg art fair and was selected as the winner of the fashion prize.
“My goal is to grow my production company; to see my artwork selling in galleries all over South Africa, the UK and Japan; to act in an SABC or Netflix series; and to continue studying and building my network. Down the line, I also want to establish an arts centre in my community in Limpopo to empower young people in the arts and build their confidence. I had no confidence as a child because I was bullied on account of being super short with a big forehead and gaps in my teeth. But I am now a powerful young man and no one can put me down. If they try, my first question is “Why is this person behaving like this?”’
Thabang is intensely focused on achieving success in his art and his company. “It’s a multibillion-rand business in the making,” he says, adding, “I strongly believe in manifesting. At the moment I am living in a shared apartment in the Joburg CBD, and I don’t like it here, but it is affordable and I can invest more money into equipment for my business. It’s short-term and I can see my success and I can see myself living in my own lovely home.”
Like Thabang, Rethabile Weevirs, also a 2023 scholarship finalist in the visual arts, was selected for the BASA Debut Programme.
Based in Orkney in North West, she works with charcoal, chalk, pastels and oils, creating what she describes as ‘a unique blend of figuration, abstraction and modernism’.
She explains: “My work is deeply personal, exploring feminism, emotions and feelings. We often don’t like expressing our feelings, sometimes because of our backgrounds, and the work that I create talks about these situations so that people can relate to it.”
“The NSP mentorship and the BASA programme are very important for me,” she says. “In addition to my art, I am the co-founder and director of Weevirs Creative Foundation, a business that I established last year that offers art and painting lessons to children between 4 and 16 in my local and neighbouring communities. I charge for the workshops and hold them in several communities in my district.”
She explains that having both business and art skills allows her to be bold, creative, and practical. “With my art skills I can create meaningful and inspiring work to become a successful, professional artist, and with my business skills I am able to make smart decisions about business and finance to run a sustainable and thriving foundation, which I would like to expand nationally.”
All four of the participants in the NSP Class of 2023 said the programme helped them to build a strong network of young artists and professionals with whom they maintain contact and collaborate for inspiration, exhibitions and art festivals.
ACT CEO Jessica Denyschen says: “They are fulfilling the meaning of Nyoloha in Sesotho, which is “to rise”. The ACT NSP is an integral part of the ACT strategy to educate, upskill and empower people who want to make a career in the arts and culture sector, and we are excited to see the incredible talent emerging from the scholarship programme. – Heather Dugmore
Heather Dugmore is an independent journalist,
author and specialist writer in higher education. She has in-depth knowledge
about ACT having written numerous articles about the artists in its programmes
and its pivotal role in the arts and culture sector.
Celebrating 30 years of arts excellence – Arts & Culture Trust
ACT is South
Africa’s premier independent development and art investment organisation. The
primary aim of ACT is to increase the capacity for arts and culture initiatives
to create sustainable futures, through development and investment in
innovative, sustainable projects that make a meaningful contribution to
society. Through structured development programmes, it provides support to all
expressions of arts and culture, including literature, music, visual art,
theatre, and dance, and the support extends to festivals, community arts
initiatives, arts management, arts education, as well as arts administration.
Over the past 30 years ACT has supported more than 830 arts, culture, and
heritage development projects countrywide, which include small businesses.
For more information, visit the ACT website, follow them on X, or like their Facebook page. Or click on the logo advert to the right of this article.
About Nedbank
In partnership with
ACT, the Nedbank Arts Affinity has donated more than R30 million over 30 years
to support over 830 arts, culture, and heritage development projects
countrywide. If you would like to make a difference in the lives of talented
young artists in South Africa, simply link your Nedbank Greenbacks to the Arts
Affinity and Nedbank will donate money to ACT, at no cost to you. The Arts
Affinity currently supports the ACT Nyoloha Scholarship Programme, the ACT
Thuthukisani Programme, and the ACT Tlholo Project. For more information, visit
any Nedbank branch, call on 0860 555 111, or visit nedbankarts.co.za.
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