Trouble in the arts funding world...

Tremendous budget cut leads to one funding session
NAC - National Arts Council
02/20/2010 11:27:12

The Council of the NAC notes with concern the impact of the reduction on their budget allocation from DAC for the 2010/2011 financial year.

These cuts, coming shortly as they do after DAC's termination of the Task Team established to advise on cultural programme for the World Cup celebrations, are a sad indictment of a lack of serious resource commitment to arts and culture.

The NAC is acutely aware of the effect of these limitations on the sectors, and at their first Council meeting of the year, have resolved to introduce short-term interventions to ease the difficulties on the sector.

Firstly, the NAC will continue to formally request the DAC to consider increasing the NAC allocation and to streamline the distribution of funds available from the national fiscus. It is intended that the cultural practitioners will be able to easily access funding from this source through various channels that will free any bottlenecks that have arisen.

Secondly, the NAC will make all funds available to artists in one funding call in 2010 instead of the normal two calls. Considering that the budget has been severely reduced to R14 million in 2010 [calculated at R2,000,000 across the seven art disciplines], only one funding call will be announced for specific projects and initiatives.

The Chairperson of the NAC, Adv. Brenda Madumise exclaimed that "We are of course disappointed at this reduction to the NAC and the sectors we support, and even more distressed by the painful consequences that this will automatically have for our artists."

She went on to say that "the NAC will continue to make a strong case to government on behalf of the creative industries during the Council's remaining term of office. However, given the political consensus already reached on the overall budget, we recognise that we must all prepare for difficult times ahead."

Annabell Lebethe, the Chief Executive Officer of the NAC added that "We will endeavour to serve the sector through a concerted drive to form strategic partnerships with the private sector and international donors in realising the joint industry vision for the South African creative community.

Some questions we're asking...

We at Spier Contemporary have started asking some questions about contemporary art in South Africa ahead of the exhibition opening on the 14th March, what do you think?

Feel free to add other questions that you think are important, or provide your answers:

How do you, personally, define art?
What does ‘open for art’ mean to you?
Can contemporary artistic practice catalyse social change in South Africa?
Is it important to centralize African perspectives and approaches on contemporary art?
How do you describe an African perspective and approach to contemporary art?
How can Art change people’s perspectives of how Africa is seen?
What’s the difference between art in Africa and art in South Africa?
Is art stunted by bad financing in South Africa?
Who owns art in South Africa?
How do you define cutting edge art?
Is being cutting edge in the artistic world important?
What does engaging with art mean to you?
How do you think we get people to engage with art?
What is an art activist?

Let us know what you think.
The Spier Contemporary Team

Mikey Burton

Subject: Spier Contemporary 2010 open call: Ambassador Collective

The Spier Contemporary 2010, the largest visual and performance art biennale in South Africa, is launching on the 14th of March at the City Hall, Darling Street, Cape Town. As part of this extraordinary exhibition we are organising a pool of energised people to debate, encourage, facilitate and promote conversations about the role of art in society. We want to to deal with questions like: Who has a voice, who is included and who is left out?; What role does and should art play in helping to shift our gaze and understand the world in which we live from a new and enhanced perspective?; and much more.

We’d like to invite you to come and join us in this conversation and become part of the Ambassador Collective. We need diverse voices to shout for an open attitude toward art in our country - to broaden the discussion about how creativity can fundamentally change our everyday lives. We will be starting with a one-day event on the 13th of February at City Hall. If you’re keen to learn more about the Ambassador Collective and the Spier Contemporary just hit reply to this email (now or before 3 Feb) with “I’m open for art” in the subject and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.