25TH BASA Awards: here are the winners

Determination, imagination and cooperation: this was the grit that kept this year’s BASA Award winners on the road through a tough 2021, the year during which the awarded projects took place. From social innovation to education, cultural exploration to artist development and community upliftment, partnerships were formed between artists and businesses that showed leadership and…

Call for Cultural Producers to Apply

Applications are now open for the new BASA Cultural Producers Programme, an intensive leadership accelerator training programme, which will also place candidates into South African creative and arts organisations that have identified the need for building leadership skills. Supported by the British Council Cultural Economy programme, and partnered by Common Purpose South Africa, the successful cohort will…

Nhlakanipho Ndwandwe

Meet the winner of the Debut Online competition

Nhlakanipho Ndwandwe, winner of BASA’s Debut Online competition, tells us about his journey with the programme, which aims to equip young emerging creatives with skills, funding and training to make a profitable livelihood from their talents. This year is the second iteration of the Debut Programme, which was set up to contribute to the development…

Dismantling Digital Inequalities: Part 2

This episode of the 2021 Debut Programme’s Conversation Series takes place against the backdrop of Debut Online, an event that presents 180 participants taking their products to market and launching their websites to existing and new online market segments. We discuss what it means to work with participants from rural and peri-urban areas in the…

Dismantling Digital Inequalities: Part 1

In this episode of the 2021 Debut Programme’s Conversation Series, we look at how the world has moved online at an accelerated pace –  but has left communities in the creative sector battling to keep pace and access this new space. Boitumelo Mostsoatsoe discusses dismantling digital inequalities with Jane Mpholo (renowned Free State artist, co-director…

RISE: MORE THAN A SIDE HUSTLE

In this episode, we look at the value of the arts and creativity to the economy, how small creative enterprises can contribute to economic growth, where collaboration and partnership can come into play and elevate all parties concerned, and look at what the arts sector needs right now. All these questions are answered in this…

Rebooting the arts sector

The pandemic has forced the arts sector to think deeply about ‘what’s next?’ In this episode, host Samm Marshall is joined by Professor Pitika Ntuli, Dr Ismail Mohamed, actress and director Buhle Ngaba and BASA Head of Programmes Boitumelo ‘Tumy’ Motsoatsoe. Samm asks the panellists some hard-hitting questions about working in partnership to realise the…

Womxn Rising

In this special Women’s Day edition of the BASA Podcast, we’re putting the spotlight on the BASA Awards and conversations surrounding this year’s theme, RISE. Womxn Rising brings together four fabulous women who have careers in the creative sector and business to talk about where women find themselves now and what is ahead as we…

Less duplication and more collaboration

In this sixth and final episode of the first season of the ASSEMBLY podcast series, outgoing BASA Chairman Charmaine Soobramoney facilitates a conversation with Marcus Desando of the Arts & Culture Trust and Flying House’s Tamara Guhrs about ecosystem building and collective value creation through strengths mapping and systematic collaboration.

CULTURAL SECTOR FUNDING AND BUSINESS MODELS

The cultural sector requires agile and relevant business models to survive. BASA Deputy Chair Mandie van der Spuy is joined by author, poet, and media consultant Kojo Baffoe and 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Jefferson Tshabalala (Kiri Pink Knob and Ubdope Shishini) to look at different ways of thinking about financial sustainability within the creative…

Purpose-driven marketing

BASA Deputy Chair, Mandie van der Spuy, Impact Space’s Kathy Berman (Impact Space), and Lakin Morgan-Baatjies of UJ Arts + Culture explore how the roles of creatives and marketers aren’t always separate – both are part of the value chain, unique and different, but still connected in touching the hearts of consumers. This conversation looks…

CREATIVE FUTURES: Q&A with Dr Andrea Rurale

In this episode of the ASSEMBLY podcast series, BASA CEO Ashraf Johaardien facilitates a Q&A with Dr Andrea Rurale from Milan, Italy on the social impact of the arts, the degree to which the creative sector and cultural institutions have (or have not) been agile, responsive or resilient, in terms of Covid-19 challenges, and the…

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN A DIGITAL AGE

Charmaine Soobramoney (BASA Chair) is joined by Unathi Malunga (SASFED) and Elroy Bell (DALRO) to talk about Intellectual Property in a Digital Age. This conversation explores various IP issues ranging from what creatives’ rights are, how to protect these rights and stop exploitation, how to earn from your IP and more.

The Creative Agenda

ASSEMBLY and ArtsTrack No. 9: BASA Chairman Charmaine Soobramoney and BASA Deputy Chairperson Mandie van der Spuy in conversation with Grace Meadows (British Council) and Madeleine Lambert (BASA). Anchored by insights from the launch of ArtsTrack no.9, this is a deep dive into the findings of the inaugural edition of BASA ASSEMBLY partnered by the…

A challenge to young African artists to ‘Act their Art’

In partnership with the South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA), Absa officially opened applications for the 2021 Absa L’Atelier art competition, inviting young artists from across the continent to enter. Since its inception 35 years ago, the Absa L’Atelier has showcased and continues to invest in some of the finest young artists…