Neil Fraser
December 12, 2003
IT is quite some time since I last reported on the 'Cultural Arc' in fact it was way back in July 2001 (Citichat 28/2001). I referred then to the work that was being done by Professor Peter Stark, the Director of the Centre for Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Northumbria. Peter had then completed a Cultural Audit of Johannesburg and his interim report at that stage addressed the cultural context of Johannesburg in terms of physical facilities, location and connection and then in terms of cultural sub-sectors and the cultural projects themselves. Subsequently, Peter has been sharing his time between the UK and South Africa and, this week, returned home after another lengthy stint here. Before he left I asked him if he would provide an update on his local work and he writes as follows:
"In Johannesburg the regeneration of the Inner City is being matched (and complemented and influenced) by an extraordinary cultural rebirth centred on an Arc of cultural projects linking Constitution Hill through Braamfontein to Wits University's new Cultural Precinct and then across the Nelson Mandela Bridge to a Newtown Precinct at last beginning to realise some of its immense potential.
The Cultural Arc - a concept identified by Professor Carolyn Hamilton at Wits and taken forward by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) - is now adopted as the key public sector intervention in cultural policy in the Inner City by all major stakeholders.
Massive investments in new physical infrastructure along the Arc are now being complemented by policy and programming interventions of a different kind and the Arc itself is beginning to extend towards Joubert Park and into the CBD.
The Lotto has awarded a grant of R10 million for a public prt programme which will build on the spectacular success of the Art works at MetroMall and Faraday and stand alongside the now established 'Johannesburg Art City' intervention that places massively enlarged two dimensional works on billboards and buildings.
Wits School of Arts is launching three masters programmes in aspects of cultural management in February and the JDA is engaged with CREATE-SA to develop Newtown as a major national centre for workplace based training across the Creative Industries.
The JDA has agreed an 'exit strategy' for its time in Newtown (2000-2006) that targets a threefold increase in programme available in the precinct across all of the arts and a four/five fold increase in audiences/participants. This alongside a major drive to attract more complementary investors from the private sector in catering, retail and other aspects of entertainment.
At the same time, individual projects on the Arc elsewhere in the Inner City are enjoying new prospects for the future and new leases of energy and life.
The Johannesburg Art Gallery has a new look to its entrance galleries and will shortly have a new Director. Outside in Joubert Park, the Creative Inner City Initiative is providing new training opportunities and a growing pattern of events. The City Hall will be refurbished for Music of all kinds and there are plans for an outdoor Mining Museum infiltrating the CBD. The Beautiful Things Exhibition at the Bus Factory is now being complemented by additional exhibitions of equal quality and by a full training programme. Music and Dance programming is growing and the Market Theatre - for so long the standard bearer - is having to look to its laurels. There are plans to reopen the Alexander Theatre in Braamfontein and there will shortly be new galleries at Wits and the Civic Theatre where SA Ballet have their new home and where houses are still running at over 80%. There is a major new arts and - principally - media cluster developing around Aukland Park
Last week BASA (Business Arts South Africa) moved into Newtown, forsaking the Northern Suburbs.
Still problems aplenty but an energy and excitement that is palpable and all this before the City's new Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage takes up his post!"
The last comment refers of course to the recent appointment by the Council of Steven Sack, a coup for the city which will give the city's burgeoning Arts, Culture and Heritage sector a great boost. I was chatting to Steven on Tuesday evening at the opening of BASA's premises in the Mill in Newtown and we agreed that his appointment, which he takes up on 1 January, has come at a particularly appropriate time for consolidating the city's arts and culture role. Cometh the hour...!
Later that same evening, a fire razed a large part of the refurbished Mill building, a section that its owners, architects and urban planners Urban Solutions, had moved into only two days previously. Tragic that this relatively young group who have contributed so much to the revitalisation of the city particularly over the past five or so years should suffer such a major loss, not just in terms of the building but also their computer network containing their drawings/design.
I'm hoping to go on leave today for a few weeks, so this is the last Citichat for 2003 - and what a year it has been in terms of progress for the city! The exciting thing is that this is just the beginning. Citichats during the six years prior to this year record to a large extent the plans and hopes and frustrations of urban renewal - in 2003 Citichat recorded real on-the-ground achievement. Next year there will be even more - in fact the first edition for next year will provide details of two really important projects - so have a great holiday, a blessed and joyful festive season in peace and safety. Speak to you in 2004! All the best, neil.
Neil Fraser is the Executive Director of the Central Johannesburg Partnership (CJP) - a non-profit company dedicated to the revitalisation and regeneration of the inner city of Johannesburg and a Director of Kagiso Urban Management (KUM) a company that provides urban management and urban regeneration solutions to communities throughout South Africa. He can be contacted at (011) 688-7800/442-4949 or neilf@cjp.co.za
Views and opinions expressed in CITICHAT are not necessarily those of the CJP or KUM. Visit the CJP's web site at http://www.cjp.co.za
