Programme Director
Distinguished Delegates
Your Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for inviting me to attend the opening of the Heritage Funding Summit, and to share with you the thinking of my ministry on matters of heritage and funding.
The importance of the summit
I think that this is a very important subject that brings so many heritage practitioners, experts, academics and activist together under one roof and I believe that, in the process of this rigorous and robust interaction, ideas will emerge which will enable us to move forward in both our policy thinking and in practical terms. I think we should commend the National Heritage Council for providing the platform on which we can speak about this topic.
The significance of heritage
Let me begin by stating that heritage has been very important in our history from the times of the very origin of South Africa as a nation state, a century ago, and even in the periods preceding this union. While it is true that heritage has also been contested terrain for more than a hundred years with different sides in the battle between the coloniser and coloniser laying different claims to heritage and telling different narratives of our history, it is equally true that in 1994 through the holding of our first democratic elections and through the adoption of the New Constitution in 1996, South Africans were beginning to lay the foundation for a common understanding of nationhood, and providing a shared framework for building national identity and heritage.
Looking back at this period, even the words of our first President, Ntate Nelson Mandela, have become etched in our memories and our history. We recall the words of then President Mandela to the nation and the world on his inauguration:
"Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all."
In this way and through these words, the foundation was laid a society that would embrace humanism and make all humanity proud. I believe that the moment of transition coupled with our previous participation in struggle determined how we would see heritage, our vision was influenced by our understanding of heritage and what needed to be done to preserve the treasures of the past, to commemorate high points in our liberation struggle, and guide our attempts to pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
Let me also recall the words of that famous scholar Ernest Renan who posed the question: What is a nation? He wrote an entire essay devoted to answering the question. Part of his answer was as a follows; and I quote:
A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the present. One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent, the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage that one has received in an undivided form.”
This is also the challenge facing us as a nation and as a people. As we participate in daily activities to improve the lives of our people, what binds us together should be a common heritage. This heritage and values should build social cohesion and allow us to work together as one. But the effort of harnessing all available resources to make this heritage a living reality is not an easy task. It is in this context that this Summit and its attempts to address funding of heritage become even more important.
Government's role in funding
In most parts of the world, government is often a key stakeholder in ensuring funding and sustainability of the arts. This country is not an exception. Even prior to the democratic government in 1994, arts, culture and heritage were part of the larger discussions that were happening within the broader liberation movement.
The two initiatives that played a role and contributed to South African Cultural Policy are the Culture in Another South Africa (CASA) conference in Amsterdam 1987, Holland and Culture and Development conference held in Johannesburg, April 1993. Discussions at these ground breaking conferences centred around the value and importance of arts, culture and heritage and how these can contribute to the reconstruction and development of the country. Since 1994, the Department of Arts and Culture and government broadly have provided ample space for artistic expression and creativity.
The White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage was preceded by a broad consultative process that engaged stakeholders in the sector. The arts, culture and heritage funding infrastructure that South Africa has is therefore a product of these historical developments. In the main the creation of arm’s length statutory bodies such as the National Heritage Council (NHC), the National Arts Council (NAC) and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) as well as partnerships such as the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) and Business Arts South Africa (BASA) need to be examined in the historical context from which they evolved.
An arm’s length approach to the arts,
Cultural and heritage practitioners were conscious of the previous abuse that was orchestrated by the apartheid government. Hence the notion of autonomy or arms length featured prominently in policy debates. They wanted to limit the role of government to providing funding, with little say in the creation of works of art and the promotion of culture. We can debate the effectiveness of these measures.
However, it is clear that the challenges that our sector faces are related more to funding and sustainability than to suppression of artistic expression.
The belief that the democratic state would be prone to interference in creative expression has proven to be unfounded.
This government remains committed to the ideals contained in our constitution with regards to freedom of expression. It needs to be emphasised that freedom of expression is a requisite for artistic expression and is also at the heart of creativity and innovation. The Department of Arts and Culture sees the arts both as a mirror of society that offers us reflection and also as a way of imagining the future. Art enables us to arrive at a different destination better than the place from where we have started.
Art and the market
Last week, at the South African National Editors Forum Nat Nakasa Award Dinner, President Jacob Zuma emphasised the importance of a free media and talked about the "dictatorship of advertising". It is interesting to note some similarities between the media and the arts. Quite often, the sector is confronted with similar challenges. Do artists produce arts that take into account market dynamics? Or do they ignore these completely?
Often, this is where government, foundations and philanthropic organizations come in. These often address what is called market failure in business jargon, where demand and supply are unable to produce the desired social outcomes. Our funding regime is supposed to address challenges such as these, by investing in areas where the private sector is less incentivised to do so and by ensuring that there is Arts for All.
At the same time we recognise that arts is part of building a nation and the market place should not be seen as the only space or even the most importance space where artistic production takes place. History also enables us to break free from the control of the market and offers us the possibility of greater freedom of artistic production for the greater good of all and the preservation of the integrity of the arts.
Challenges of funding
The challenges of funding are however multifaceted and varied, first, the past continues to impact on the present. The economic structure of the country continues to dictate where our resources go, namely, funding by most of our agencies continues to fund the arts and heritage in urban areas at the expense of rural areas.
The old migratory patterns to urban areas continue to draw most of the talent, including artistic talent to the urban areas. If you are a musician, you are unlikely to get a recording deal in Limpopo or the Eastern Cape. You therefore come to Gauteng or go to the Western Cape. Secondly, limited financial resources mean that the small cake that is available needs to be spread as thinly as possible.
This often results in what is called double dipping, where one project is forced to apply to various agencies for different aspects of the same project. This is often time consuming for artists. They spend invaluable time lobbying and canvassing for resources than doing what they are good at, namely, artistic production.
The Department of Arts and Culture is aware of these problems. We need to find ways of breaking the barriers of the past and the practices that have sustained these limitations. We need to ensure that rural economies benefit from our funds and that through funding we actively break the economic and cultural divides between urban and rural, between black and white, between men and woman and between township and town.
We know that public resources that are available through our agencies will not be adequate, particularly when it comes to addressing the legacies of the past, but we need to come up with creative ways of making a little do more.
Recently, we completed a policy review that has involved extensive discussion with stakeholders. We now need to examine the results of that review and focus our attention on what needs to be done to amend legislation as well as to create a more enabling environment for the flourishing of the arts, culture and heritage sectors.
The department is therefore looking at re-examining the structure of funding in the sector, starting with looking at our own budget. We are also thinking in new ways about our relations with our funding institutions and the most effective ways in which funding can be disbursed and policy advice given. A spirit of partnership and accountability should therefore be inculcated where each of us should feel obliged to make a contribution for the public good.
In global economics language, South Africa is classified as a middle income economy. This means that we are not as resources challenged as most of our colleagues on the continent.
The importance of public-private partnerships
Yet, while we have a vibrant arts, culture and heritage sector, our inputs and outputs do not match. The creation of the Arts and Culture Trust of which the department is a founding member and the establishment of Business Arts South Africa were innovative initiatives indeed. These are proving to be important institutions in the sector. Their contribution is invaluable.
The problem is that we should also think beyond these institutions as the sole public private partnerships. Evidence demonstrates that the private sector continues to play an active role in arts, culture and heritage funding through foundations and social responsibility budgets. The Department of Arts and Culture will begin to engage the private sector beyond the above mentioned institutions. We need to encourage more domestic investment in the arts and heritage sector.
The National Lottery Distribution Agency (NLDA) responsible for arts, culture and heritage sits on a budget of over R1,6 billion. Our own interactions with heritage and arts practitioners reveal that few are aware about this important resource. We are happy that the CEO of the National Heritage Council represents the heritage sector in the Agency.
The department will soon embark on a structured engagement with the lottery and our colleagues at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to un-tap these resources for the sector.
In conclusion, I want to emphasise the importance of research in our work, especially in providing sound statistics and comprehensive indicators of the role of heritage in economic growth and development. Other sectors use these to argue and justify their existence and programmes. Already some initial research that we have done in the form of a skills audit of the heritage sector is bearing fruit.
We need to work with Universities and other research organizations to build a valuable database and research infrastructure that can measure our progress. This is in the long term interest of the sector. As we move forward, these will increasingly determine the seriousness with which the sector is viewed.
Finally, may I remind all delegates present that within one week and two days time on the 18th July, together with the rest of the world community, we celebrate Nelson Mandela Day a day on which all our citizens should give 67 minutes of their time to the selfless service of others.
In partnership with our national parliament and other government departments and agencies and together with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, we shall be participating in activities around the country. I would like to appeal to everyone in this room to do his or her share in making this country a better place by contributing time and effort on this day.
Let us indeed make our people and all humanity proud and do more to build a better life for all.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
9 July 2009
Source: Department of Arts and Culture (http://www.dac.gov.za)
