director's message

Money for the two previous issues of bonani came from the 'Save the Sang' fund that was launched by Zonnebloem Wines in September last year, while we looked for sponsorship. Following on the support by Sappi Waste Paper during 1997 and 1998, Sappi Head Office has undertaken to fund the next four issues of our newsletter through advertisements. We are enormously grateful to Johan van Wyk, corporate affairs manager of Sappi for this undertaking, and to Merle Huntley, member of the Friends' Council for making the initial contact.

Readers of bonani are aware of the untenable financial constraints under which the national art museum has had to function, particularly during the last financial year. We have raised money for every single museological, curatorial and educational function and I would like to acknowledge the goodwill and assistance that we have received from many different sources; this has enabled us to keep the Sang viable and vibrant. Our long-standing partnership with the Standard Bank National Arts Festival and Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg is reflected in the exhibition of works by Gerard Sekoto that will be on view at the 1999 Festival and subsequently at the Standard Bank Gallery. Curated by Alan Crump and Joe Dolby, the show comprises a selection from the more than 2000 works that were brought from Paris and presented to the Sang through the Sekoto Foundation, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the French Government. 'Lines of Sight - Perspectives on South African Photography' is generously supported by the National Arts Council and the Arts and Culture Trust of the President. 'Video Views', in which contemporary South African artists explore this new creative vehicle, has been running for some months now. It would not have been possible without the support and commitment of Linda Givon of the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, Robert Weinek, Bie Venter and Mark Hamilton of Ultimate Sound, the Consulate of the Federal Republic of Germany and the artists, for their willingness to co-operate, even at their own cost. We are grateful to Mweb, particularly Peter Heart-Davis and Bruce Cohen, for hosting the Sang Website, and to Russell Jones of the Scan Shop who continues to offer unstinting support to our publications.

Professor Shirley Kossick has presented the Natale Labia Museum with a new overhead projector, and our satellite has also benefited from the generosity of the Chairman's Fund of the Fox Foundation and Dr Caryll Shear, who donates the proceeds of her lectures to the museum.

Sponsorship of the arts is high on the international agenda and the complexities and debates surrounding it were brought to our attention by Camilla Boodle who is based in London and who visited South Africa earlier this year. She has a long and impressive track record in working with museums on the fund-raising side and offered interesting and different ideas of the partnerships that can be created between business and the arts. In South Africa there is little debate - the arts and heritage struggle desperately to survive while Government, through the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, remains adamant that state funding is adequate. Words like 'self-sustainability', 'entrepreneurship', 'commercial viability' and 'business principles' are bandied about and the spectre of privatisation grows larger every day. It is time to interrogate current perceptions and statements and to open the debate about what the differences are between a business and a museum, as well as the potential for meaningful co-operation and strategic alliances.

A museum is defined in Article 2 of the Statutes of the International Council of Museums (Icom) as 'a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.' This basic definition can be interpreted, emphasised and expanded upon in many different ways, depending on the nature and structure of individual institutions but the key elements are 'non-profit making' and 'in the service of society'. A business involves capital, production, shareholders and profit. For business the bottom line is production, commercial viability and profitability, for a heritage institution it is safe-keeping, stability and service for the benefit of all.

A museum, therefore, is not a business, and national collections are the responsibility of the state. Business, which is capricious and changing, can not, will not and should not take responsibility for heritage and the arts. The collapse of the latter in Indonesia, in the wake of the economic crisis, has been cited in bonani. Camilla Boodle is clear on the roles of the public and private sectors: business supports on the basis that government funds, it underpins the process of funding. Business taps into the arts for creativity, difference, passion and corporate social investment programmes. In the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, where she has worked, only 10% of the budgets for arts, culture and heritage comes from the private sector.

She also cautions against seeing the national lottery as the solution to the funding challenges, for in the UK the lottery was meant to bring new, additional money; instead it is becoming a substitute for government support for arts, culture and heritage. We also need to remember that the money going into lotteries is largely sourced from the poor and desperate in society Ð the opposite of where tax should be raised.

Dramatic changes have occurred in the arts and heritage sectors during the last ten years. Today it is understood that alternative sources for funding have to be found and that management needs to be taken seriously. Programmes have to be properly planned, properly delivered, tested and evaluated. Good governance, accountability, transparency and commitment to quality and high standards are essential when working with taxpayers' money. Strategic planning and marketing are becoming integral to the functioning of museums. The British Museum has appointed its first managing director, Suzanna Taverne, who will work alongside the director, Robert Anderson to acknowledge the differences and responsibilities in managing such an institution. Only time will tell whether the fears within the curatorial departments, that 'she will use crude financial criteria to set the museum's priorities' are justified (The Art Newspaper, May 1999, p 21). Fulfilling their responsibilities as social entities will demand great vision and leadership of museums, for it is above all the question 'what can we do for society?' that will have to be faced and answered. According to Maria Horta, chairperson of Icom in Brazil and director of the Museum Imperial in Petropolis, '. . . one question arises every day more strongly and clearly. The value of a museum cannot be measured by what it is, really. Not by the excellence of its technical staff and resources, by the advance of the technologies used in its many tasks, by the richness of its collections or by the social prestige it has acquired. The value of a museum or a museological work can only be measured by the effects it produces on people'.

Tackling serious social problems such as Aids, healthcare, drug abuse, crime, widespread social misery, unemployment and environmental degradation is one of the roles of a museum as a social entity. Another is as an instrument for political and social transformation. As early as 1939 T R Adam articulated a vision for museums as instruments of popular culture and education (The Museum and Popular Culture). But he added that they cannot be divorced from the social turmoils that paralled their birth. They should be symptoms of a revolutionary state of mind, rebelling against the confinement of scientific and artistic knowledge within the narrow prisons of class and privilege. For him, the control of museums 'is no routine or honorary matter but a front line job in the continuous struggle to preserve social freedom'.

Marilyn Martin

'African Meets Africa'
Agbabli Kossi, Mami wata, 1973, wood and paint