2021 BASA AWARDS

24th Annual BASA Awards Commissioned artists Left Zizipho Poswa and Andile Dyalvane from Imiso Ceramics

The Eastern Cape-born duo’s work is rooted firmly in the landscapes, spiritual and cultural essence of South Africa and they are cofounders and co-owners of Cape Town studio Imiso Ceramics. They were commissioned to reflect on this year’s Awards theme RISE in the creation of the unique pieces. Together the trophies form a theme that reflects on creative adaptation. Using the base elements of earth or soil, and introducing facets such as spikes and curves, the pieces tell a tale of resilience in a time of challenge, deflecting the negative and leading through creativity. The BASA Awards colour palette of vibrant purple and pink was infused with earthy and elemental tones of magenta, lilac, gold, yellow and red and the pieces suggest an upward trajectory or ascendency, in keeping with the spirit of the 2020 winners whose partnerships catalysed them into adapting and stretching their skills to create mid-pandemic projects with impact.

“Difficult times are not meant to destroy us but to strengthen us. We all have unsuspected reserves of strength inside that emerges during tough times and with that we shall rise and heal and overcome”. –Zizipho Phoswa, Imiso Ceramics.

Watch the BASA Awards online at: https://awards24.basa.co.za/

Tell us more – who is Khanyi? I’m not great at talking about myself, so here are three statements that best describe me: I’m a mother, a coffeeholic and a lover of life.

All things creative and art in its different forms have always piqued my interest. When I was nominated to join the BASA Board of Directors in 2015, I was ecstatic to do more to promote and expand the creative sector. In 2018, I was asked to join the BASA Awards team as a judge, and I continue to love being a part of the team, and watching how artists and arts organisations collaborate.

The BASA Awards have always been about recognising the role of partnerships in facilitating new creative work. It shines the spotlight on how business and the arts can work together to create more collaborative, creative projects.

Not too much; the entries are changing of course, and we have added new categories, like the SMME, First-Time Sponsorship and In-Kind categories, because it is important that really successful collaboration is recognised on any scale.

It was a big surprise! We were equally worried that the creative sector may have shrunk, but despite all the challenges there were more entries than there were for work made in 2019.

Yes, despite there being really difficult circumstances and very challenging new territories and timelines to navigate, there have been some outstanding entries. I think it’s been really hard to make our decisions this year.

We had a total of 96 entries and 39 were complete and eligible for judging.

Yes, we did see that there were smaller projects, and many contained an educational or social message. Digital was a big factor and it’s been fascinating to see how the digital medium has been used to create work.

We reviewed the entries independently, had some discussions offline, and then gathered again to discuss and debate. The final voting was done via a Zoom call, and a polling system with an auditor present.

Nothing in particular, in terms of the nature of the projects. That’s what makes being a judge so exciting – it’s the diversity. If there was a common thread running across all of the categories, it would be digital innovation.

Definitely. I don’t think we can ever go back to not thinking about incorporating digital in anything we do. Things will return to some kind of normalcy and we will have live events, shows, exhibitions, etc., but now we will always have to keep in the back of our minds that we must be able to deliver digitally as well.

Our theme this year is RISE. It refers to this moment we are in, where so much has been broken down and deconstructed. We are left with two choices – stop, pack up and go home, or rise and return. Reflecting on the extraordinary resilience of the arts and creativity sector, what we are seeing is that people will RISE again.

They should find strength in the fact that all is not lost. Everything they need to RISE is within them. That is the most wonderful thing about being an artist. As long as they still have the talent and creativity, they will RISE again.

I find comfort in knowing that no circumstance remains the same forever. The unanticipated obstacles of the last year or so have taught us all something. If you have not heeded the lesson then you have missed an opportunity to reflect, transform and evolve.

Indeed – each one, helps one. Solid partnerships will play a considerable role in the recovery journey. Artists shouldn’t fear reaching out with a proposal to companies or individuals who might be in a position to help.

Artists must be willing to try new things and think about their work in fresh ways. They must seek out opportunities in as many settings as possible. This is the perfect moment to try something new.

They must have a plan, execute it as best they can, and stay focused.

For me, education will always be the number one investment. That could mean investing in a business course, digital marketing course, or a finance for non-financial managers course. Something that will give you knowledge to help sustain you as an artist for years to come.

There is an awards ceremony that will take place online on 30 August, when all the winners will be announced.

After we launch the online ceremony, the public will be able to visit basa.co.za to watch it unfold.

Resilience. We keep going against all odds and don’t give up easily.

I love a beautiful voice and I have my eye on a singer/songwriter called Lloyiso. I discovered him on TikTok. In my opinion he has huge potential to become a globally successful singer.

I don’t really have a favourite poet. I do, however, enjoy reading or listening to poetry depending on the message. If it’s relevant to what I am feeling or what’s happening in my life, the country or in the world at the time, that touches me.

It’s never over, until it’s over. As long as you are still alive, every day that you wake up is another chance to work towards achieving your goals. Keep going!

Khanyi Mamba is the Marketing Communications Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Cambridge International andi has more than 15 years’ experience in marketing and public relations having previously held marketing and communication roles at DHL Express, Pirelli Tyre and Sun International. She currently serves as a BASA Board member.

The 24th BASA Awards is the most powerful testament to partnerships yet. The businesses who stood by their creative partners in this time of uncertainty embody true allegiance. The creatives who resisted the urge to bake banana bread until the storm rolled over, are the innovators and shape-shifters that define our resilience and innovation. Seizing the opportunity to reinvent and re-create, these pioneers are the creative innovators of tomorrow.

At first, COVID-19 appeared to be a ‘black swan’ event, a bolt out of nowhere. When the outbreak emerged in Wuhan, many of us thought it would never reach far away South Africa. When it hit our shores, the initial 21 day lockdown lured us into thinking it would be over quickly, yet eighteen months later it is evident that the pandemic is likely to redefine our lives for some time yet. In hindsight, those who were agile and jumped straight into the flux got a significant head-start and a sharpened toolkit.

Many of the digital projects recognized at the 24th BASA Awards were reverse engineered versions of original ideas or ongoing projects. The National Arts Festival had produced 45 live Festivals before having to move everything online in just 100 days in 2020 with the full support of their long-time partner Standard Bank. Others had equally steep learning curves. Partnered by Rand Merchant Bank, the Outreach Foundation’s Letters to You and Me - an intergenerational project took a high-contact experience into the digital realm with added benefits for staff and users who quickly adapted to digital, honing new skills as they went. The Lockdown Collection by partners MRS WOOLF, Sirdar and Artist Proof Studio reacted with extraordinary speed in the very first moments of lockdown - bringing instant relief to artists in crisis through online auctions that captured the full attention of bewildered arts lovers. This simple call to rally for the arts, delivered through a specific moment in time, led to further collections presented in this thematically driven digital space.

Similarly, Marimba Jam was able to pivot their in-person marimba school online with the assistance of Investec StartUp School, buoying the mental health of everyone who participated in the rapid move to online musical learning through #LockdownJam.

Online agility was also used to successfully raise funds to develop digital learning streams for students of The Rainbow Academy, School of Performing Arts and Business (NPO). With the In-Kind Sponsorship of The Bantry Bay Suite Hotel, an online benefit concert Making Rainbows In the Time of COVID-19-South Africa ensured disadvantaged students were not left on the wrong side of the digital divide.

UJ Arts & Culture & UJ Art Gallery in association with MTN SA Foundation developed The Moving Cube, an online platform which was launched with a documentary series on Willem Boshoff’s work with a specific focus on the Blind Alphabet (1993/4) featuring the forty wooden forms representing the letter B in The Blind Alphabet. The new digital platform offered layers of content and supporting materials to enrich the experience. The Moving Cube has had over 26 000 unique visitors from all over the world.

Although in person dance gatherings ceased, Chairman’s Advocacy Award winner JOMBA! presented a digital JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience in 2020 which also prompted a three-country collaboration for the JOMBA! Khuluma platforms; a meeting

between South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United State of America. In 2021, the JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE series of dialogues and critical engagements was supported by key partners in India, Europe and the Americas in a free digital event from 2-4 June 2021.

South Africa’s particularly strict lockdown created a dual need for income and protection from the virus itself. Museum Store Africa and social enterprise partner Impact Space immediately recognized the need for their supply line of 48 small creative industries to sustain their income and demonstrated the immediacy and agility of online by pivoting these organisations into mask-making enterprises. Masks4Good found customers for the masks through an online store but also paid forward donations of masks to match those bought online. Behind all of these projects were people who needed income, outlet and voice. The gravity of the suspension of live activity on the creative sector continues to be devastating. These partnership projects are the wayfarers, the lights that shone out in a sea of depressing news. The longing for a return to carefree community, touch and expression is still felt but the digital dimension creates bridges to see us over to the other side. In time, the exponential development of tech will see us integrate the in-person and digital into an altogether different experience. The foundations have been laid and there is no doubt that digital will continue to be a current through the BASA Awards of tomorrow.

The Beyond Borders Partnership Award recognises a partnership that builds brand reputation and audience for both partners across borders, through a project showcasing South Africa to the rest of the continent and/ or overseas, or bringing international or intercontinental arts projects to South Africa.

The finalists are:

Lumières d’Afriques is a touring group exhibition, comprising 54 artists from each country making up the African continent. It presents work inspired by a single theme ‘The Illuminated Africa’. It is premised on the idea that the 21st Century belongs to Africa, while reflecting on the challenges facing the development of the continent. For the first time in Contemporary African History, 54 artists committed to creating a single original work of art to highlight the challenge that energy access represents for the continent’s sustainable future. The installation includes artists filming their creative process for each varying piece from their environment.

The National Arts Festival is South Africa’s oldest and premiere arts festival. It is the largest multi-arts festival in Africa and one of the largest in the world. The Festival presents a strong programme of theatre, dance, music, visual art, digital arts, film, comedy, street theatre, crafts, exhibitions and newly emerging hybrid art forms. 2020 saw the 47th edition of the Festival, presented virtually in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Artists wove their stories into pixels, bringing a new digital heartbeat to life and opening up the South African arts sector to extraordinary possibilities as over 80 000 global visitors clicked onto the #VNAF platform.

The Community Development Award recognises support for arts and culture projects enhancing their communities, whether through education, skills development, contributing to livelihoods or employment, tourism, or other growth opportunities in the community.

The finalists are:

For the past five years, the Outreach Foundation has offered an after-school drama programme for young learners and the youth in Hillbrow, in partnership with Tswelopele Frail Care Centre and Johannesburg Society for the blind. It has run as an intergenerational programme on themes like identity, belonging, cultural beliefs and generational curses that has inspired intergenerational knowledge sharing. After suspending the programme, Letters to You and Me – 5th Anniversary of our intergenerational programme was developed as a digital storytelling training programme and a training manual, based on Gcebile Dlamini’s 5 years of engaging intergenerational theatre making practice. Letters To You and Me, the 2020 iteration of the intergenerational project, was also co-funded by the International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners: www. goethe.de/relieffund

Originally a physically interactive music project before the pandemic, the Marimba Jam project made the transition to becoming an 8-week online programme, offering an alternative to the usual Marimba band classes. Aware of the challenge of access to a Marimba instrument by students, the programme (titled #LockdownJam) offered innovative ways to learn music and how to DIY instruments with material available in their homes. The programme culminated in a ‘mass item’ which involved every student recording their individual part to a song and putting it all together in a music video, which positively affected the mental health of students.

Masks4Good was formed by the Museum Store Africa founder and communities to produce and distribute hand-made masks before it was made mandatory. Built on a payit-forward principle, for each mask purchased, one was distributed to communities in need for free. It was an urgent response to the hard lockdown’s impact on 48 small creative and design enterprises that lost income as a result of the Javett Art Centre (where art, design and craft are sold) being forced to close.

The First-Time Sponsor Award is for a sponsor supporting the arts for the first time, regardless of size, budget, whether it is through CSI, marketing, HR, B-BBEE or other.

The Lockdown Collection was developed to run during the initial 21 days of the lockdown, to capture the unprecedented times through the eyes of prominent South African artists as a live-online auction. These 21 art pieces by renowned South African Artists were sold to raise money to support South African artists. Each piece was revealed daily and reflected the thoughts, feelings and vision of artists’ COVID-19 experience. The overwhelming support and demand has led to more collections such as the Student Collection, a Canadian Green Recovery Collection and also an Open Call Collection launched in 2021.

The LIFELINES Chandelier project is an artistic homage to the lifelines and the medical scientists who have ensured the delivery of unfailing excellence since the unprecedented pandemic. Making an emotional statement on how we are all connected, even with enforced distancing and COVID isolation, the installation highlights the significance of science behind Adcock Ingram’s Critical Care during a time when mortality is ever-present, and the idea of LIFELINES as critical to our survival medically, emotionally, and financially. The project aligns the ‘A’ of art into STEM education.

Womandlachallenge was born from challenges that were exacerbated by lockdown, like food security, health matters and gender based violence at homes. In partnership with GBV dedicated NPOs to raise awareness and funding for GBV and Child Abuse representative organisations, Womandlachallenge was launched on South Africa’s National Women’s Day - 9 August. The project included a run, a performance and the launch of a street mural. The mural was designed and created by a group of social creatives mentored by Kathy Berman, the founder of the Museum Store Africa, during a one-year accelerator on a street in Maboneng. Inspired by the BLACK LIVES MATTER street painting, the mural spelt out a colourful WOMANDLA.

The Innovation Award celebrates the most innovative, cutting edge and progressive partnership that served all partners’ purposes effectively. These breakthrough projects and partnerships should demonstrate great creativity, originality, reinvention, new methodologies, or technological/digital innovation.

The finalists are:

The Blind Alphabet Project: Letter B – Babery to Bigeminate (1993) from the MTN Art Collection was produced in line with a digital experience promoted as part of MTN and UJ’s venture into the 4IR age. The project was inspired by insight from visually impaired individuals on the outdated nature of the Braille type format. The 40 works of the Letter B within the Blind Alphabet were augmented by music written by contemporary composer, Jaco Meyer, as well as voice-overs and QR codes. This enabled the visually impaired to access the works through cellular technology – listening to the music and rationale behind

each artwork through earphones. The visually abled also got to appreciate this body of work in a unique way.

The National Arts Festival is South Africa’s oldest and premiere arts festival. It is the largest multi-arts festival in Africa and one of the largest in the world. The Festival presents a strong programme of theatre, dance, music, visual art, digital arts, film, comedy, street theatre, crafts, exhibitions and newly emerging hybrid art forms. 2020 saw the 47th edition of the Festival, presented virtually in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Artists wove their stories into pixels, bringing a new digital heartbeat to life and opening up the South African arts sector to extraordinary possibilities as over 80 000 global visitors clicked onto the #VNAF platform.

The Lockdown Collection was developed to run during the initial 21 days of the lockdown, to capture the unprecedented times through the eyes of prominent South African artists as a live-online auction. These 21 art pieces by renowned South African Artists were sold to raise money to support South African artists. Each piece was revealed daily and reflected the thoughts, feelings and vision of artists’ COVID-19 experience. The overwhelming support and demand has led to more collections such as the Student Collection, a Canadian Green Recovery Collection and also an Open Call Collection launched in 2021.

The Long-Term Partnership Award recognises outstanding initiative and commitment to the arts over a longer term period (at least three years) as an integral part of the sponsor’s strategy. The value to the arts project, the broader community and the sponsor, must be apparent.

The finalists are:

Established in 2011 to recognise emerging Southern African fine artists who demonstrate exceptional ability, the programme offers selected visual artists exhibition and mentorship opportunities, with art material sponsorship and a platform to have work translated in a different medium, in collaboration with the Spier Artisan Studios. All of this is aimed at developing artists’ professional practice. In the face of the pandemic, Nando’s arranged the Nando’s Creative Showcase event at Constitution Hill in November 2020, where a small COVID-compliant group of media and VIPs were invited to experience the various Nando’s Creativity programmes, including the Nando’s Creative Exchange exhibition.

The MTN SA Foundation and the UJ Art Gallery have collaborated successfully over the past four years by deliberating significant themes derived from the present social construct as reflected in artworks in both the MTN and UJ Art Collections. These projects are accompanied by educational and mentorship programmes, while an emerging Artist Development Programme was added in 2018. Exhibitions include Shifting Conversations in 2017, which engaged on colonial and postcolonial narratives; Continuing Conversations in 2018, addressing various forms of identity through portraiture; and Conversing the Land in 2019/2020, focused on depictions of landscape in all its conflicting manifestations. In light of the pandemic, a full digital experience was introduced in line with the 4IR venture.

For the past five years, the Outreach Foundation has offered an after-school drama programme for young learners and the youth in Hillbrow, in partnership with Tswelopele Frail Care Centre and Johannesburg Society for the blind. It has run as an intergenerational programme on themes like identity, belonging, cultural beliefs and generational curses that has inspired intergenerational knowledge sharing. After suspending the programme, Letters to You and Me – 5th Anniversary of our intergenerational programme was developed as a digital storytelling training programme and a training manual, based on Gcebile Dlamini’s 5 years of engaging intergenerational theatre making practice. Letters To You and Me, the 2020 iteration of the intergenerational project, was also co-funded by the International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, and other partners: www. goethe.de/relieffund

The SMME Award is for vital support given to the arts by a micro, small or medium enterprise with up to 200 hundred full-time employees and an annual turnover of no more than R10 million.

The Lockdown Collection was developed to run during the initial 21 days of the lockdown, to capture the unprecedented times through the eyes of prominent South African artists as a live-online auction. These 21 art pieces by renowned South African Artists were sold to

raise money to support South African artists. Each piece was revealed daily and reflected the thoughts, feelings and vision of artists’ COVID-19 experience. The overwhelming support and demand has led to more collections such as the Student Collection, a Canadian Green Recovery Collection and also an Open Call Collection launched in 2021.

Womandlachallenge was born from challenges that were exacerbated by lockdown, like food security, health matters and gender based violence at homes. In partnership with GBV dedicated NPOs to raise awareness and funding for GBV and Child Abuse representative organisations, Womandlachallenge was launched on South Africa’s National Women’s Day - 9 August. The project included a run, a performance and the launch of a street mural. The mural was designed and created by a group of social creatives mentored by Kathy Berman, the founder of the Museum Store Africa, during a one-year accelerator on a street in Maboneng. Inspired by the BLACK LIVES MATTER street painting, the mural spelt out a colourful WOMANDLA.

As the wave of business closures fell during the hard lockdown and funding uncertainty grew, the Rainbow Academy embarked on a fundraising campaign from March-November 2020 to sustain their organisation by building an easily accessible online teaching and learning platform. Learners in the academy come from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Western Cape, with no access to the internet or data services, smartphones or tablet devices, hence this campaign to raise funds for these essential resources to ensure continued learning amidst the constraints and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fundraising campaign included a successful online Christmas and New Year’s show written and performed by the learners from the academy. The Sponsorship In-Kind Award acknowledges a sponsor giving quantifiable and impactful non-monetary support to the arts. This may be through in-kind provision of equipment, materials, media or PR support, space, transportation or travel, or any other products or services, as opposed to monetary sponsorship.

The project was formed to address the crisis in the performing arts and to contribute to the survival of both the arts and tourism industries that are amongst the most fragile in the local economy. It also provided live theatre events for audiences starved of artistic and cultural events because of the COVID-19 pandemic – the Summer Theatre Season comprised ten new and existing professional productions, curated and presented under safe, socially distanced open air circumstances.

The International Public Art Festival is a mural art project that gathered 24 local and international volunteering artists to create public murals in the community of Salt River from 7-16 February 2020. The festival showcases exceptional street art talent while also adding an economic injection and presenting a strong social focus on the local communities. The participating artists are strategically selected to form a diverse group of local and international artists from varied levels of experience and diverse backgrounds. The artists are encouraged to learn from each other, exchanging skills, experiences and networks whilst volunteering their time creating a walking art gallery.

As the wave of business closures fell during the hard lockdown and funding uncertainty grew, the Rainbow Academy embarked on a fundraising campaign from March-November 2020 to sustain their organisation by building an easily accessible online teaching and learning platform. Learners in the academy come from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Western Cape, with no access to the internet or data services, smartphones or tablet devices, hence this campaign to raise funds for these essential resources to ensure continued learning amidst the constraints and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fundraising campaign included a successful online Christmas and New Year’s show written and performed by the learners from the academy.

Each year, the BASA Chairman recognises, at their own discretion, a sustained and extraordinary commitment to the arts in South Africa. This may be in the form of advocacy and awareness initiatives and/ or direct support for the arts, whether in a personal or professional capacity at a local, national or international level. In 2021, the Award goes to JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience.

JOMBA!, presented by the Centre for Creative Arts, University of Kwazulu-Natal, is Durban’s (and South Africa’s) benchmark dance festival, centred around connecting contemporary dance practitioners from across the globe. Aside from the landmark two-week dance festival, JOMBA!’s Khuluma Writing Residency (launched in 2010), mentors graduate students’ skills as dance writers. Through a series of seminars and critical discussions, the young writers work throughout the festival, offering their thoughts and responses (both personal and analytical) to the work on show.

2020’s digital JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience was a three-country collaboration for the JOMBA! Khuluma platforms; a meeting between South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United State of America. For the first time the platform also offered an isiZulu language editor and translator on the platform.

In 2021, the JOMBA! MASIHAMBISANE series of dialogues and critical engagements, launched its first three-day dance colloquium/dialogues, aiming to support focused South African and African (and Diaspora) dance scholarships in an accessible and community-driven manner, and with attention to new ways of engaging dance/performance scholarship, practice, and practice-led research.

Watch the 24th BASA Awards, partnered by Hollard on https://basa.co.za/awards/

At Hollard, partnerships are part of our DNA. Our sponsorship of the 2021 BASA Awards, is one of those special partnerships.

The 2021 theme for the BASA Awards is RISE, inspired by the endless resilience of the human spirit. Never have we been challenged as much to rise as we have in recent months.

On the 30th August, we will celebrate the resilient artists who inspire us to continue rising and the special South African businesses who have partnered with the art community in these tough times. We believe that these partnerships help us to ensure better futures for all.

Chief Marketing Officer Heidi Brauer -Hollard Insurance