3 minute read
ARTS
THE STAGES FOR SOCIAL CHANGE ARE EVOLVING
MONICA NEWTON, CEO of the National Arts Festival, discusses the changes in the arts arena and their impact on female artists and how women are helping to drive social change
The past 18 months have changed all of us in different ways. The pandemic has had a cataclysmic impact on artists across the globe. In South Africa, the months of lockdown have seen a litany of losses: income, colleagues, audiences and platforms. Women artists, in particular, have been forced to sacrifice their creative space, both physically and emotionally, to cope with the added pressure of being a full-time teacher or primary caregiver. Those with no other means of sustaining themselves have lost their homes and cars, and the instruments they use to create their art.
The arts are fundamentally undervalued in South Africa. Urgent advocacy and action are needed to professionalise the sector so that artists, technicians and other creatives are not left holding out their begging bowls, but are given the space and support to continue driving the social change that our country needs desperately. Part of the solution is to provide the spaces to make and show work.
ADAPT AND EVOLVE
When lockdown was first announced, the National Arts Festival was well into preparations for the live 2020 National Arts Festival. We had two choices: mothball the festival and wait for a return to “normal” or adapt and evolve, relying on technology and the resilience and flexibility of the women-led festival team. It has been an extraordinary effort, but we did everything possible to become a meeting place for artists and audiences. So, the 2020 and now the 2021 festivals have gone online.
Has it been the same as live work? Definitely not. However, some things that don’t happen in the finite time-bound theatre, can be achieved online. We are reaching audiences that would not have travelled long distances or across continents to visit the festival, and we are able to give artists direct voice and agency.
Thanks to the digital space, artists are being seen and receiving offers from other global festivals. The 2020 National Arts Festival saw productions being picked up for future Edinburgh festivals, the Brighton Fringe and Broadway.
Monica Newton
EXPLORING THE DIGITAL SPACE
Women artists are exploring the digital space to find a voice and, hopefully, inspiration. In 2020, Buhle Ngaba’s beautifully filmed Swan Song probed grief and Mamela Nyamza’s Pest Control highlighted the plight of artists, while Slindile Mthembu’s IGAMA examined the structural disadvantages inherent in our society. Amy Louise Wilson, the 2020 Distell National Playwright award winner, played with layers of scriptwriting, art direction, music and digital design to rearrange and reimagine her “lost” stage play AnotherKind, and 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Lulu Mlangeni’s piece Kganya was a loud call to action to free ourselves from an absurd moment and step boldly into the light.
The Fringe, the festival’s independent programme that enables artists of all levels of skill, exposure and genre to present work at the festival, has been given a digital home, from where artists can leverage a direct relationship with their audience and the potential to maximise profits in an infinite market. Women artists are most actively using this space to address women’s issues and broader social and political challenges.
The online arts following is still minute compared to the global reach of Netflix or Amazon, but it has a niche audience. As the festival and the South African arts community refine and test the online model, it will become an important part of the arts ecosystem, particularly as the technology and arts practice evolves to include more accessible tools such as virtual reality.
Whether for urgency, grief, introspection or action, the online space will continue to be a place for artists to effect social change and provide audiences with an experience that enlightens, enlivens and inspires.
