‘To look life in the face. Always look life in the face. And to know it for what it is. At last to know it. To love it for what it is, and then, to put it away… Always the years between us. Always the years. Always the love. Always the hours.’ – Virginia Woolf…
Commissioned bi-annually by Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) and conducted by sponsorship research leader BMi, ArtsTrack monitors arts sponsorship, consumer engagement in the arts, as well as perceptions of the arts and its sponsors. The 2019 iteration of the report is the eighth update of the original version and evaluates the popularity of music,…
BASA Column in Creative Feel, November 2019 For some reason, Danish author Hans Christian Anderson’s 1837 fable The Emperor’s New Clothes has been on my mind a lot lately… and I’ve been trying to figure out why… Perhaps it’s the lingering echo of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg castigating the assembly of world leaders…
Business and Arts South Africa NPC (BASA) recognises that the actual and projected impact of Covid-19 will have a particularly devastating effect on the creative sector. We recognise that the widespread cancellations of festivals, concerts, productions, exhibitions, events and cultural programmes locally and internationally due to the Covid-19 pandemic is a Sword of Damocles hanging…
All tribes have rules and rituals. Some are homogenous in that members look, dress and behave the same. Others are more diverse and membership may vary. But there are always rules and rituals that must be obeyed at all costs. That’s how tribes work…
As South Africa’s largest privately-owned insurance group, the Hollard Insurance Group includes The Hollard Insurance Company and Hollard Life Assurance Company. Established in 1980, the group provides short-term and life insurance as well as investment products to a diverse customer base, including individual consumers, commercial entities and corporate clients. Robert Enthoven started the company based…
Where does Gregory Maqoma end and where does Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) begin? Since Lindiwe Letwaba took up the mantle of CEO, it has possibly been marginally easier to discern a distinction between the company and its creator, but the story of VDT will forever in my mind be inextricably bound up with the life…
Jack Ginsberg is a passionate supporter of and advocate for South African art, who began collecting art and books about art and artists in his early twenties, and shares his passion and treasured collections broadly. Over the past 45 years, Ginsberg has arguably built up the most formidable collection of artist books in Africa, and…
Sometimes I wonder if Women’s Day and Women’s Month have gone the way of Christmas and Easter. Sometimes I wonder how many people have heard the names Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph and Lilian Ngoyi …
Nando’s restaurants can be found around the globe, striving to provide patrons with hospitality and a warm South African welcome. Each Nando’s restaurant has its own unique design, but they all have earthy textures and colours reminiscent of their Afro-Portuguese roots, and feature original, local South African art and unique design touches. Yellowwoods Art (now…
1001 is a binary number but 1002 is not. Neither is 99 or 999. Binary is 1 or 0. Binary is on or off. Like being pregnant (or Hamlet), in binary terms, you are or you’re not. There is no in between. There is no 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 or…
Established in May 1999, pinpoint one human resources focuses on the recruitment and assessment of professionally qualified, middle through to executive management placements, across all industries and sectors, on a permanent, contract and project basis. The solution options offered by pinpoint one include search and headhunting, contingency recruitment, and advertising response handling, all of which…
Spiking the lens in a clip on YouTube from CNN’s Marketplace Africa, the disarmingly charming and exquisitely beautiful Zain Asher smiles into the camera. Across time and space, she looks directly at me from the screen of my iPad…
PPC Ltd was established in 1892 as South Africa’s first cement plant, De Eerste Cement Fabrieken Beperkt. A leading supplier of cement and related products in southern Africa, PPC has factories in South Africa, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Its history is closely linked to the growth and development of…
A bridge must be built between the visionary and the decision-maker, between seeing and foreseeing, between creators and economists.’ – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (‘The Cultural Dimensions of Development’, The Right to Hope)…
Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) is a diversified financial services brand encompassing investment banking, fund management, corporate banking and advisory services. A division of FirstRand Bank Limited, RMB is an Authorised Financial Services Provider and Credit Provider with an extensive footprint across more than 35 African countries. RMB’s ability to think differently and its collaborative spirit…
The Coloured Cube (TheCC), a private company, specialises in exhibitions and the curating and manufacturing of artworks. TheCC describes itself as a maker on a mission to create new makerspaces, methods to engage with art and ways to partner and connect with others. Having participated in BASA’s Education Programme during 2014 and 2015, TheCC indicated…
The Joy of Jazz, South Africa’s oldest jazz festival takes place in Johannesburg, Gauteng. This 20-year partnership between Standard Bank (one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups, operating in South Africa for 154 years and in 20 countries across Africa) and T-Musicman (established in 1989, one of Africa’s foremost music and concert promotion companies)…
Total South Africa (SA) was established in 1954 and is part owned by multinational Paris-based Company, Total Group. Through this global alignment, Total strives to ensure that the company is able to benefit from shared access to internationally acclaimed best practice, technological expertise and top flight business innovations. Total SA is committed to developing the…
