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A GEM OF AN IDEA Graff’s charity facEt offErs Ground-brEakinG, lifE-chanGinG proGrammEs for communitiEs in sub-saharan africa, and has Good causE to cElEbratE somE rEcEnt, siGnificant succEssEs Words Maria Yacoob photoGraphy Micky Hoyle
As Lionel Smit heard the auctioneer call lot number six, his pulse quickened and he felt faint. Smit’s larger than life-sized portrait of a Cape Malay woman, ‘Girl Submerged’, was about to go under the hammer. He looked around at the assembled crowd of South Africa’s most prominent art lovers and philanthropists, and hoped the painting would reach its reserve price. A few minutes later, ‘Girl Submerged’ fetched R190,000 (around $24,500). At four times the reserve bid, it was the highest price ever paid for Smit’s work in South Africa. He was elated. Yet the artist received no money at all from the sale. The painting, along with 14 other works by South Africa’s most collected and esteemed artists, was a donation to Laurence Graff’s charity, the FACET Foundation. The auction was the culmination of a fund-raising evening hosted at the Delaire Graff Estate, in Stellenbosch in the country’s Western Cape, an event that raised R1.4m (around $181,000) for FACET. ‘I was thrilled to take part in the FACET art auction,’ reveals Smit. ‘When art has the power to affect someone’s life, it is very rewarding.’ Smit’s father Anton, also a celebrated artist, donated a bronze, neo-tribal sculpture, ‘African Queen’. ‘FACET is doing fantastic work in South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana,’ he enthuses. ‘Its goals
of upliftment and empowerment are close to my heart. When I was asked to donate work to the auction, I immediately said yes.’ The money raised by the auction will go directly to FACET’s latest project in the Cape Winelands. There are many impoverished children in the region who are further disadvantaged and vulnerable due to alcohol. A shocking 12 per cent suffer from Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. FACET, in partnership with local charity The Pebbles Project, will build a Graff Leadership Centre in the Winelands. The building will provide a home for new projects and initiatives. Some of these will offer support and training to local children; others will establish after-school provision for the older children living in the region. The ways in which programmes at Graff Leadership Centres can change lives is known only too well by Mmoloki Segobaetso, a 22-yearold from Botswana. The young man dreamed of becoming a nurse, but, as a school drop-out, had little means or hope of achieving this. But then he had a chance introduction to the charity Stepping Stones International, FACET’s partner in Botswana, at a Youth Against HIV/AIDS event in the town of Mochudi. This led to an invitation for him to join the FACET-funded Finding the Leader Within programme, based at Mochudi’s Graff Leadership Centre, which opened last October.