South Africa has a responsibility to African arts Kauru Project Director Tshepiso Mohlala appeared on a panel discussion titled The Art Economy and Audience at 10h30 at the Cape Town Art Fair. Director Tshepiso Mohlala and her team were in Cape Town last weekend to introduce the project on both the 2014 Design Indaba and the Cape Town Art Fair, as Event Partners of Art South Africa. Visit the Art South Africa booths for information. The discussion focused on debates around creating new forms of access, ownership, attendance and participation for creative products and services, particularly in the visual arts sector. Key questions of the panel included: Finding ways to grow the art economy at a more accessible level that will allow or encourage potential collectors that dont have lots of disposable income to begin to invest in artworks; Looking at the economy of the exhibition and the exhibition as economy; What are galleries, arts institutions and art fairs doing to incentivize, grow and/or attract new audiences and create access to individuals who may be interested in buying art or attending gallery shows. Other panellists included: Ijeoma Uche Okeke, Thembinkosi Goniwe and Beathur Mgoza Baker and the panel was chaired by Brendon Bell-Roberts. According to Mohlala South Africa has a critical role and responsibility to facilitate the growth of the Contemporary Art sector on the continent. “As a country with one of the stronger art sectors and developed economies in Africa we are well positioned to be a gateway for the larger continent’s cultural industries,” says Mohlala. “It’s also our responsibility as South Africa to take a leading role in the promotion of this sector as a whole beyond our borders in order to promote the sustainability of visual arts for our own artist. We cannot rely on the small local market and then look to the oversubscribed current international markets forever. “ “We need to create an African art market that over time rivals any in the world. We need to create the opportunities through festivals, projects, fairs to showcase our own, and we need to put major efforts behind audience and investor education. “ Additional Information: About !Kauru: The 2014 exhibition , entitled Rerouting Dialogue 1994-2014 will launch in May at the UNISA gallery and is being curated by Avitha Sooful. The exhibition will be at the UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria from 22 May 2014 -27 June 2014. The !Kauru African Contemporary Art Project aims to encourage a dialogue within Africa and internationally in order to facilitate a change of perceptions about the continent through the vehicle of contemporary art. It was launched in 2012 by Project Director Tshepiso Mohlala with the support of the International Relations Department, a portfolio of South African Government’s Department of Arts and Culture (DAC), as a key project which fulfils their mandate to promote inter-cultural relations through projects such as this in the continent. Through this partnership, the funder endorsed the project’s aims - to support the objectives of the AU and to foster cooperation between all the African states. Over the past two years exhibiting artists from Angola, Botswana, DRC, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, were invited to participate. This region once again is the focus for the 2014 project season; however, it has expanded to include other countries, namely: Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia and Nigeria. About the Panel: Chair: Brendon Bell-Roberts Brendon Bell-Roberts is Co-founder of the SUSTAIN our AFRICA Summit, Expo and Festival and the CHANGE AGENT Communications Consultancy. His projects combine creativity, sustainability and positive change, helping to define the future Africa. For the past 20 years Brendon has been designing, curating and publishing. With more than 100 major publications and exhibitions, under his belt, he has helped launch the careers of many of South Africa’s top artists and creatives. Together with his wife Suzette he is the founder and publisher of Art South Africa magazine, which has evolved into a digital platform in keeping with his focus on the role of creativity, sustainability and positive change in the African digital revolution. Panelists: Ijeoma Uche Okeke Nigerian-born and Johannesburg-based, Ijeoma worked for over 3 years as the arts projects manager at the prestigious Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg, and is an independent researcher, cultural facilitator and project manager. She has over ten years of professional experience in the arts and culture sector as an administrator, curator and facilitator, and has worked actively as an arts and culture manager in both the creative and performing arts sectors in Nigeria, and more recently in South Africa. She has a BA (Hons) in Fine and Applied Arts, from the University of Nigeria Nsukka, a PGD in Arts and Culture Management and an MA in Heritage Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She was recently appointed the Regional Network Development Manager at the Visual Arts Network South Africa (VANSA). Thembinkosi Goniwe Thembinkosi Goniwe is an artist and art historian currently lecturing at the Vaal University of Technology, having also lectured at the University of Fort Hare, University of the Witwatersrand, and University of Cape Town. A curator of notable exhibitions and contributor of essays, Goniwe has participated in exhibitions, residencies, conferences and workshops locally and internationally. Tshepiso Bathea Mohlala Tshepiso Mohlala is the creator and director of the !Kauru Contemporary African Art Project, which she launched in 2012. Through this project, Tshepiso aims to create a dialogue within Africa - and also internationally - about ourselves, in order to facilitate a change of perceptions about the continent utilising the vehicle of contemporary art. Tshepiso has 15 years experience in the field of marketing and advertising, working for blue chip companies such as BMW (South Africa) Audi AG (Germany and South Africa) and Sony Ericsson. She has the experience of working on high profile events such as, the Lion King CSI Project, Fifa 2010 Opening and Closing ceremony. Her company Back-to-Back Experiential Marketing is managing the !Kauru African Contemporary Art Project. !Kauru provides a platform for African contemporary artists and cultural practitioners, on which to engage around a showcase of contemporary art sourced from the continent. It also aims to sensitize South African and African audiences to the value of their own contemporary art production and to promote the appreciation of quality contemporary art from the continent Beathur Mgoza Baker Beathur Mgoza Baker is the director and co-founder of INCA – Independent Collectors of Art in Africa - a new organisation championing inclusivity and facilitating the participation of new and emerging collectors of art in the continent’s arts economy. Going beyond the confines of the traditional ‘white cube’ and its inherent limitations, INCA is creating innovative and stimulating forms of engagement for collectors across the socio-economic spectrum in Africa, to afford them better access and exposure to artists and their artwork. An accomplished media executive, curator and development activist in the visual arts and cultural sector, Beathur is also an award-winning African filmmaker. Her experience and expertise extends across broadcasting, film, art, culture and heritage; her current focus being the growth in access to the visual arts for Africans, via experiential new forms of audience engagement and development, and more inclusivity at all economic levels.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 09:14:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015