Funding the Arts

Given the importance of the Arts in uniting, enlightening, and developing a rich and vibrant South African society, the Roundtable discussion explored how funding of the Arts can become more streamlined, co-ordinated and effective in order to enhance the sustainability of the Arts sector.

Panellists addressed a number of issues relating to:

•           the funding terrain in South Africa,
•            the current state of funding in South Africa,
•           current funding structures, multiplicity and costs, and
•            sustainable strategies for funding the Arts in the future.

The Arts are a vital means to galvanizing a greater South African identity. The Arts are able to unite, engage, enlighten and disseminate ideas and information, but they can only flourish in a society that is committed to freedom of expression. The Helen Suzman Foundation believes that the plethora of art media that exist in our country can contribute to the emergence of a more open society.

However, certain core issues persist in terms of funding:

•           There exist large disparities in funding across different art forms;
•          Certain funding outlets are being inundated with funding requests whilst other funding avenues appear to be underutilised;
•          Overall, it appears that so many projects in South Africa remain hopelessly underfunded and cannot continue to operate without re-conceptualising the importance of these projects. We thus need to examine the local funding terrain in an effort to ensure sustainable funding.

The overarching goal of this Roundtable was to shed light on these issues and on any other challenges which currently characterise the Arts sector, thereby giving all stakeholders (including business, government and the arts community at large) an improved perspective on these issues.

Addressing the audience in the Blue Lecture theatre at Rhodes University was a distinguished panel of arts sector stakeholders, namely: Mark Fleishman, associate-professor and head of Drama at UCT and founding-director of the Magnet Theatre. Chats Devroop the Programme Coordinator for Jazz and Popular Music at Tshwane University of Technology; Michelle Constant is the CEO of Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), and Sibusiso Xaba, the Director-General of the Department of Arts and Culture.

The discussion was broad and each of the speakers laid out their concerns over the Arts sector as a whole, and in particular the funding terrain.

The major concerns highlighted were:

•          South Africa’s Art legacy, what would we leave to the future generations?
•          An incoherent set of messages and plans to expand the Arts sector sustainably, including often   competing and conflicting messages from the three departments involved in the development of the Arts, namely the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Higher Education and the Department of Arts and Culture;
•          Poor policy guidelines and lack of a coherent list of priorities;
•          No clear charter of development for the Arts going forward;
•          Use of taxpayer money in funding expensive international programmes with little impact on development of local talent or wider developmental goals;
•          Funding duplication and the emergence of corruption as a result of poor management systems;
•          Proper measurement of outcomes and expectations when funding the Arts;
•          Lack of “Funding Champions”.