Awards

To enter the Annual BASA Awards, either the arts organisation/project or the sponsor must nominate their partnership by submitting an entry via BASA’s entry platform, which is available online while the call for entries is open. Requirements for the BASA Awards are published annually to outline guidelines and criteria.

Once the BASA Awards have been judged, the finalists and winners are announced and profiled through Business and Arts South Africa’s various platforms and media partners.

The 26th BASA Awards broke with tradition to be hosted in Cape Town for the first time. Guests gathered at the awe-inspiring Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in the V&A Waterfront to celebrate the DNA of partnerships and the moment BASA’s new brand was revealed. The 2023 theme of Symbiosis spoke to the mutual benefits of outstanding partnerships in business and arts and highlighted the immense impact these projects make in our broader society.

In the year BASA celebrates its 25th anniversary, we present the 25th Annual BASA Awards, partnered by Hollard. Honouring the determination and creativity of businesses and artists who found imaginative and diverse ways to work together during 2021, a complex year marked by turmoil and interruption, the awards illuminate the way forward.

The year 2021 marked the 24th year of the BASA Awards and the second year that the Awards were presented online. Inspired by the great Maya Angelou poem Still I Rise, the theme RISE was both a celebration and a call to action. The ceremony celebrated the resilience of the arts sector and the business partnerships that helped them endure.

The indelibility of the arts sector was highlighted in one of the century’s most challenging years, 2020. For the first time in its 23-year-long history, the BASA Awards were presented online.