Arts and culture organisations
National Heritage Council (NHC)
The National Heritage Council, a statutory body that aims to bring equity to heritage promotion and conservation, was officially constituted on 26 February 2004 in terms of the NHC Act, 1999 (Act 11 of 1999) [PDF]. The council creates an enabling environment for preserving and promoting South African heritage.
Its other objectives are to protect and promote the content and heritage that reside in orature;
to integrate living heritage into the council and all other heritage authorities and institutions at
national, provincial and local level; to promote and protect indigenous knowledge systems (IKS); and
to intensify support for promoting the history and culture of all South Africans.
The NHC spearheads campaigns to revive the values of ubuntu and is developing the Heritage Transformation Charter.
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South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra)The National Heritage Resources Act, 1999 (Act 25 of 1999) [PDF], established the South African Heriage Resources Agency to provide for the identification, protection, conservation, and promotion of South Africa’s heritage for the present and future generations.
The Sahra aims to introduce an integrated system for the identification, assessment and management of heritage resources and to enable provincial and local government to adopt powers to protect and manage them.
Sahra has established the National Heritage Resources Fund to provide financial assistance to an approved body or individual, for any project that contributes to the conservation and protection of South Africa’s national heritage resources.
Conservation categories include:
- national heritage sites, registers, areas and objects
- protected areas
- structures of more than 60 years old
- burial grounds and graves
- fossils (palaeontology) and archaeology
- rock art
- underwater cultural heritage, including historical
shipwrecks.
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South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC)The SAGNC is an advisory body appointed by the Minister of Arts and Culture in terms of the SAGNC Act, 1998 (Act 118 of 1998) [PDF]. The council advises the minister on the transformation and standardisation of official geographical names in South Africa. The council has jurisdiction over all names of geographical features and entities falling within the territories over which the South African Government has sovereignty or jurisdiction acquired by treaty.
The following principles are adhered to:
- each individual feature or entity should have only one official name
- the following types of geographical names should be avoided:
- approved names of places elsewhere in South Africa
- names of places in other countries, and names of countries
- names that are blasphemous, indecent, offensive, vulgar, unaesthetic or embarrassing
- names that are discriminatory or derogatory
- names that may be regarded as an advertisement for a particular product, service or firm
- names of living persons.
Geographical names committees have been established in all nine provinces. These committees play an important role in standardising geographical names. A list of all approved names is available at http://sagns.dac.gov.za.By June 2009, the SAGNC was conducting public hearings on a policy for name changing.
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National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC)The National Arts Council aims to:
- support arts practice by creating and providing opportunities to achieve excellence in the arts, within a climate of freedom
- achieve equity by redressing imbalances in the allocation of resources
- promote and develop appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the arts through strategies that include education, information and marketing
- enhance support for and recognition of the arts by promoting and facilitating national and international liaison between individuals and institutions
- establish and recommend policy in the development, practice and funding of the arts.
It also offers bursaries to tertiary institutions for undergraduate students. Individual bursaries are offered for studies towards a postgraduate qualification in South Africa and abroad.
The NAC funds the Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng philharmonic orchestras and the Cape Town Jazz Orchestra.
The NAC and International Federations of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies co-hosted the fourth World Summit on Arts and Culture in Johannesburg in September 2009.
The summit coincided with the Arts Alive Festival, an annual programme of cultural events hosted by the City of Johannesburg. The theme of the summit was Meeting of Cultures: Making Meaning Through the Arts.
The summit was also supported by the Department of Arts and Culture and the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts and Recreation.
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MminoMmino, the South African-Norwegian music education and exchange cooperationt has since its inception in 2000 been the only funding organisation in South Africa that solely funds music projects.
In the past 10 years, Mmino funded more than 230 projects and/or individuals located all over South Africa, as well as some outstanding exchanges with Norwegian artists and institutions.
The Mmino Project is linked to the NAC, but has a separate budget and funding procedures, and works in partnership with the Norwegian Rikskonsertene.
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Arts institutionsThe following arts institutions assist to create a sustainable performing arts industry based on access, excellence, diversity and redress, and encourage the development of the full range of
performing arts:
The institutions receive annual transfers from the Department of Arts and Culture, but also generate revenue through entrance fees, donor assistance, sponsorships and rental income.
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Business and Arts South Africa (Basa)Basa a joint initiative of government and the business sector was founded in 1997. It is registered as a Section 21 company and a public-benefit organisation, and aims to promote mutually beneficial and sustainable business and arts partnerships
that will benefit civil society in the long term.
Basa receives annual funding from the Department of Arts and Culture to implement its supporting grant scheme. It is designed to attract funding or in-kind support from the business sector by offering a grant to arts projects, specifically for additional marketing or other benefits for the business sector.In addition, Basa initiates or enters into partnerships with programmes and projects designed to mainstream the arts and lift their public profile, including a range of media partnerships and high-profile arts projects with national reach. Basa boasts some 130 companies as corporate members nationally. This number fluctuates as companies merge and shift their focus areas.The Business Day/Basa Awards are presented annually. The awards encourage current and new corporate sponsors to see the results that have been achieved in the arts and culture world, and
to motivate other corporates to see the opportunities that arts and culture offer to their diverse demographic audiences.
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Pan South African Language Board
(PanSALB)
PanSALB promotes multilingualism in South Africa by fostering the development of all 11 official languages, while encouraging the use of many other languages spoken in the country.
The board was created in terms of Section 6 of the Constitution and defined by the PanSALB Act, 1995 (Act 59 of 1995). Section 4 sets out the organisation’s independence and impartiality, and also provides that no organ of state or any person is allowed to interfere with the board or its staff’s activities.
PanSALB also provides services such as research, standardisation and terminology development, compilation of dictionaries, translations, interpreting and mediation. The primary role of PanSALB is to create a conducive environment for all languages and allow language speakers access to almost everything that has to be communicated.
PanSALB may investigate the alleged violation of any language right, policy or practice. It may also summon any person, body or state organ to give evidence.
It is furthermore empowered to negotiate or mediate in cases of language conflict and attempts to achieve conciliation.
PanSALB works through provincial language committees, national language bodies (NLBs) and national lexicography units (NLUs).
The NLUs have produced monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictionaries.
NLBs were created for each of the 11 official languages and for the Khoi, Nama, San and South African Sign Language.
The aim is to develop each of the designated languages through the technical subcommittees, such as the Standardisation Subcommittee that standardises terminologies, spelling and orthography rules; and the Literature Subcommittee that develops forums for the production and recognition of literature for each of the designated languages. The revised spelling and orthography rules of nine of the official South African languages, isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, Siswati, Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda and
Xitsonga were launched in January 2009.
The Language in Education Subcommittee looks into matters that deal with language in education, while the Communication Subcommittee attends to communication issues such as the production of journals on issues related to language development. The NLBs also do research and initiate projects for the various designated languages.
PanSALB has nine provincial offices that carry out the administrative function of PanSALB, and form the base on which PanSALB’s three structures operate in the provinces.
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Community art centres and other cultural organisationsMore than 160 community art centres are in operation, varying from community-initiated to government-managed. The centres operate at different levels, ranging from general socio-cultural promotion, advanced programmes and vocational training.
The centres also vary from craft centres, community halls and community theatres. Many art centres are functioning well and have made impressive contributions to local socio-economic development. The Department of Arts and Culture supports programmes in most needy centres that are community-initiated or nongovernmental.
With its provincial counterparts and community art centres, the Department of Arts and Culture developed a national framework to address the challenges facing community art centres, including funding, the quality of programmes and management capacity.
The framework categorises community art centres into four levels based on organizational capacity. Each level has its own funding model and criteria for operation in relation to programming and skills development.
The department aimed to place 400 artists in schools and community art centres during 2009/10.
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Arts and Culture Trust (ACT)The ACT is the oldest funding agency in democratic South Africa. It was established to secure financial and other resources for arts, culture and heritage; and to project the needs and role of the sector into the public domain. Its vision is to establish a self-sustaining perpetual fund for the development of arts, culture and heritage in South Africa.
Its mission is to attract and provide funding for the sustainable development and growth of the arts, culture and heritage in South Africa, realised through mutually beneficial partnerships between the corporate, public and cultural sectors focused on making a positive difference to the lives of all South Africans.
ACT is responsible for:
- developing and promoting arts, culture and heritage in general
- advancing artists and cultural and heritage practitioners
- promoting arts, cultural and heritage education
- constructing facilities and creating and developing an infrastructure for these purposes.
Due regard is given to ensuring a spread of projects across all the cultural and artistic disciplines, including but not limited to, arts administration, arts education, community art, festivals, heritage, craft, fine art, dance, music, theatre, literature, multidisciplinary and new media.
The annual ACT Awards recognise the significant contributions made by communities, artists, administrators, educators and journalists towards the development and advancement of arts and culture in South Africa.
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