South African National Gallery

bonani 4th quarter 1997

Current Exhibitions & Special Events Natale Labia Museum Friends of the National Gallery

The various initiatives by the Ministry and Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology to create and implement policy and structures for the transformation, promotion and development of arts, culture and heritage in South Africa all seem to be moving forward. I have given progress reports in previous issues of bonani on the NAC (National Arts Council), BASA (Business and Arts South Africa) CIGS (Cultural Industries Growth Strategy) and the restructuring of national collections. There is official commitment to the processes, to the preservation of heritage and to arm's length funding. It is, however, necessary at this stage to consider the actions taken by the Department and Ministry in relation to the broader social and economic context, to measure visions against realities, cultural production against patronage.

Geoffery Grundlingh, The Life Series, 1997, silver print on fibre paper, seleium toned, aliminium panels

The new South Africa promised to provide benefits to the entire population. This requires economic and social justice, yet right now the gap between rich and poor is growing wider and the lives of millions remain unaffected by the political change. The funding available for the ambitious restructuring and organisation of arts, culture and heritage is hopelessly inadequate, for example the NAC has approximately R10 million for the current financial year (which ends on 31 March 1998) for seven disciplines (crafts, choreography and dance, literature, multi-discipline, music and opera, theatre and visual arts). The decrease in the budget for arts and culture was explained by the Director General of the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Roger Jardine, in an article, 'Arts budget revealed'. He stated that arts and culture would in future also be funded on local and provincial levels, and that the national budget would "be supplemented by initiatives co-ordinated by the department to extend the funding base for arts to the private sector", Mail & Guardian (April 15 to May 1). Culture is a concurrent national and provincial competency and the funding base is in the first place the responsibility of government - at all levels; it cannot be shifted onto the private sector. That this is happening is a logical outcome of the government's macro-economic strategy, known as GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution).

What is GEAR? It is designed to make South African capitalism competitive in the international arena. Part of the strategy involves the privatisation or partial privatisation of state assets as a means of reducing the costs of certain services and finding capital to meet other state objectives. GEAR is intensely contested: many have likened the privitasation aspect of GEAR to the sale of the family silver in order to fund immediate objectives; economic and political commentators are critical of the embracing of neo-liberalism which is central to the strategy and they question whether it can meaningfully address, let alone transform, the inherited inequities of the apartheid system. GEAR also confirms the substantive abandonment of the RDP.

What are the implications of GEAR for arts, culture and heritage? In the first place, increasingly shifting the responsibility to the private sector. Secondly, there is a danger that museums may be denuded of their social role by becoming institutions that are driven by the profit motive, or are constrained in their activities by the need to minimise costs to the state. The pressure to constantly seek money from other sources diminishes our dignity and status and threatens our independence: by relying too heavily on foreign agencies we run the risk of being subjected to neo-colonialist practices; corporate money is often demanding and 'nervous' money that wishes to be associated with popular, prestigious events, but that is not interested in new, controversial and difficult work. Adequate government support for arts, culture and heritage reinforces a genuine sense of patrimony, and it is incumbent on all who are active in the field to strenuously resist attempts to marginalise our work or to sell off parts of the national heritage, which is the logical outcome of GEAR. We must question the values of these times, in which multinational corporations may become the new proprietors of cultural property.

The Indian High Commssioner, Gopalkrishna Ghandi, regards the use of words like industry in conjunction with the arts as an obscenity: 'Thus power, patronage and money enter the equation - subordinating the arts, with latter-day patrons using art as an exploitable commodity'. Continue to battle - as we have always done - to secure a rightful and appropriate place for art, culture and heritage in our country; to guard and defend the principles of democracy and of the human rights which are enshrined in the Constitution. Cultural practice should engage with and interrogate formal, centralised processes. In doing this the public becomes aware of developments and is able to participate in the debate around the issues; without public participation democracy is doomed.

Marilyn Martin