Business and Arts South Africa NPC (BASA) in partnership with British Council Southern Africa Arts has announced the programme line-up for their joint venture ASSEMBLY. Billed as “not a conference, an un-conference, an indaba, a colloquium, or a symposium,” ASSEMBLY is a hybrid of live and digital engagements across social, digital and media platforms launching…
Since inception, Business and Arts South Africa NPC (BASA) has been a significant catalyst and connector, both cementing and amplifying powerful partnerships between more than 1 600 business and arts partners, to effect meaningful social change. In 2021, BASA’s Supporting Grants Programme continues to synergise business and art relationships and is currently open for applications.…
In this BASA Awards’ podcast, Samm Marshall speaks to BASA Board Chairman Charmaine Soobramoney and Hollard Group Sponsorship and Industry Relationships Manager Nikki Belford. They talk about their personal approaches to leadership, as well as how that applies to the South African landscape. Amplifying freedom of thought and skills application will invariably yield a complement…
In this episode of our BASA Awards’ podcasts, Samm Marshall speaks to Banele Khoza, the artist commissioned to create this year’s Awards’ trophies. As the star of a number of high-profile exhibitions, 2017 Gerard Sekoto Foundation award winner and winner of the SA Taxi Foundation Art Award, 2020 initially looked to be an equally successful…
As South Africa tentatively adjusts to its Level 1 national lockdown, BASA CEO Ashraf Johaardien notes their surprise at the rapidity at which it occurred, with Hollard CMO Heidi Brauer echoing this and applauding South Africans’ collective capacity for care and our gift for embracing change. This sets the tone of the latest episode of…
When BASA paused to reflect on its 2019 Awards, we as an organisation accepted that things needed to change. Unknown to us, and indeed the entire globe, within a few short months everything would change. This presents the question: is there room for improvement when we’ve essentially been evicted from all we once knew?
In June and July 2020, Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) in partnership with Rand merchant Bank (RMB) announced the opening of the applications for their refreshed Scale-Up Alumni Programme. “This iteration of the programme aims to reconnect with alumni, with the specific objective of deepening impact, developing stronger relationships, and equipping participants with the…
BUSINESS AND ARTS SOUTH AFRICA NPC (BASA) champions business investment within the arts, cultural and heritage sector. To this end the BASA Supporting Grants programme is calling for applications throughout 2020. Says CEO, Ashraf Johaardien, “BASA is a public-private partnership that formed part of South Africa’s strategy to secure greater involvement in the arts, and…
Business and Arts South Africa NPC (BASA) has announced that its Supporting Grants programme will be extended to allow support for South African creatives infected or affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, a funding campaign has been launched at gogetfunding.com/bizartza/, to enable BASA to also consider applications from individual artists for once-off, short-term financial aid…
At a time when physical proximity is not just dissuaded but essentially outlawed, people are reaching for their devices and digging deep into their artistic disciplines to stay connected with their audiences, and the world at large. South African artists are using the opportunities presented by social distancing to develop new kinds of content. How…
“The BASA Awards recognise the impact of creativity powered by collaboration between the right partners,” said Ashraf Johaardien, CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) at the ceremony for 22nd Annual BASA Awards, partnered by Hollard, which was held at Beechwood Gardens in Hyde Park this past weekend…
“The annual BASA Awards are a significant barometer of the success of mutually beneficial and sustainable partnerships between business and the arts,” says Mandie van der Spuy, Deputy Chairperson of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA). Says BASA Head of Marketing, Savannah Feeke, “Partnered by Hollard, the Awards recognise business…
The recipients of the 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Awards have been announced. They are Jefferson Tshabalala (theatre), Lulu Prudence Mlangeni (dance), Sisonke Xonti (jazz), Nthato Mokgata (music) and Blessing Ngobeni (visual art). The National Arts Festival established the Young Artist Awards in 1981 to acknowledge emerging young South African
An exciting and boundary-pushing programme of youth creativity will be in the spotlight when the National School of the Arts annual Festival of the Arts takes to the stages of the NSA and the Joburg Theatre. The diverse line-up, which is curated with high school learners in mind, includes performances, exhibitions, workshops and installations. Youth…
Most women writing in the 1800’s wrote romance, so for both novelists, adopting a masculine pen name achieved the outcome of not being blindly marginalized from the outset by mere virtue of their biology …
‘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…
