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Opening of Provincial Exhibition at Standard Bank  Arts Festival
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Speeches and Media Releases
 Sports, Arts Culture

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EASTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

SPEECH BY THE MEC FOR SPORT, ARTS AND CULTURE MRS N. BALINDLELA

ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF A PROVINCIAL EXHIBITION AT THE STANDARD BANK FESTIVAL OF ARTS, GRAHAMSTOWN

30 JUNE 1999

Honoured guests and supporters of visual arts and crafts it is with pleasure that I address you this in my official capacity. This is the 
third Provincial Exhibition to be organised at this level, and its objective is to expose artists from the entire Province. In 1997 and 
1998 the exhibition was directed towards the grassroots level and the collection and selection of arts and craft works started at District 
level and moved to the six regions and ultimately culminated in the Provincial exposure. The "cut - off" point was established with the aim 
of empowering artists who are less known, and less able to reach the bigger centres.

The theme of this exhibition is "from beginnings - towards excellence" and as the title suggests, it is more inclusive and the door has 
been opened to Tertiary Institutions and to professional artists. This in itself poses a challenge to established artists to become 
integrated with artists never received formal training who are more "self - developed".

The policy of the Directorate of Arts and Culture is to forge partnerships with institutions as well as NGOs and we are thankful for the 
willingness of this Museum to be so available to promote our own Directorate, and to be open to working together in the extremely important 
area of developing a partnership, through research of material culture, through the crafts. This is a neglected area, and one which will 
expose our practising artists, our diverse culture as well as our heritage.

The National Departmental of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in partnership with our Department of Sport, Arts and Culture has 
initiated a two pronged thrust into our Province to promote the Arts.

The one is the Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) - which focuses on our Wild Coast area. The objective is to enable the communities to 
develop their own enterprises which will in turn attract tourists and boost the economy of the area. Craft is a perfect example whereby the 
communities can improve their quality of life. The communities of the province do have skills. However due to lack a of capital (finance) 
encouragement and motivation, crafters have come to a cul-de-sac. It is this problem that government is addressing. The SDI has identified 
performers of dance, oral literature, and indigenous music to receive seed funding for training. Crafts sits comfortable with indigenous 
African Xhosa performance, and crafters will be assisted by the second thrust from Government which is the Cultural Industries Growth 
Strategy (CIGS).

As a potential industry, craft has been identified within this project and this brings on board entrepreneurial development and the 
establishment of markets both Provincial and International.

It is important to acknowledge government funded projects such as Grahamstowns Dakawa Arts and Crafts development, which is pioneering a 
concept, which has already trained producers from the community to a high level of competency in hand printed textiles and in graphic 
works.

Dakawa is also involved in assisting a group women creating traditional Xhosa garments and beadwork, and they are doing outreach programmes 
in local schools. Some of their artists have already had International invitations and exposure. The arts and culture directorate within 
the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, has a responsibility to promote all the artforms and our diverse cultures.

This exhibition is a manifestation of the richness and diversity in the area of visual arts and crafts and of different cultures. We need 
to see the whole range of artforms being appreciated, not only by individuals, but by communities and by Businesses/private sectors. It is 
at this level where we will best expose and promote the richness and uniqueness of the artists of our Province.

Chairperson, Ladies and gentlemen, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture invites you to experience the wealth of our Province .

I thank you

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