BASA Podcast

Anchored by insights from the launch of ArtsTrack no.9, this conversation frames findings of the inaugural edition of ASSEMBLY partnered by the British Council to unpack the content and data shared in more detail and discuss how brands use (or could use) the research to inform their partnership strategies. Join hosts Charmaine Soobramoney and Mandie van der Spuy with guests Madeleine Lambert (BASA Head of Research) and the British Council (Grace Meadows).

In partnership with the South African National Association for the Visual Arts (SANAVA), Absa officially opened applications for the 2021 Absa L’Atelier art competition, inviting young artists from across the continent to enter. Since its inception 35 years ago, the Absa L’Atelier has showcased and continues to invest in some of the finest young artists from the 12 African countries where Absa has a presence. To celebrate this milestone, join Samm Marshall as he speaks to Absa Art and Museum Curator, Dr Paul Bayliss. Paul, who manages the Absa’s art collection of approximately 18 000 artworks, is also joined by Professor Runette Kruger Head of the Department of Fine and Studio Arts at the Tshwane University of Technology, and Phoka Nyokong (who walked away with the esteemed Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award, which is awarded to the most promising emerging South African artist).

In our latest BASA Awards’ podcast, Samm Marshall speaks to BASA Board Chairman Charmaine Soobramoney and Nikki Belford, Group Sponsorship and Industry Relationships Manager at Hollard Insurance. In their conversation, they speak both generally about their personal approach to leadership, as well as how this applies to the local, South African milieu. Ultimately, amplifying freedom of thought and skills application will invariably yield a complement of colleagues wholly committed to the business and its values and goals. The conversation also focused on our current challenges, both as a result of local drawbacks and the widespread effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how this has urged leaders to adjust their tried-and-tested methods of leadership to confront and overcome new impediments to success.

In the third of our BASA Awards’ podcasts, Samm Marshall speaks to Banele Khoza, the artist commissioned to create this year’s Awards’ trophies. As the star of a number of high-profile exhibitions, 2017 Gerard Sekoto Foundation award winner, and winner of the SA Taxi Foundation Art Award, 2020 initially looked to be an equally successful period of work. But it also threatened to be the overwhelming kind of productivity that sometimes leads to burnout. Banele chats to Samm about the honour of creating the trophies for an Awards event he hopes to one day participate in as a winner, and how the change in circumstances wrought by the global pandemic unexpectedly saved him.

Why celebrating collaborations that facilitate opportunities is more critical than ever.

As South Africa tentatively adjusts to Level 1 of our national lockdown, BASA CEO Ashraf Johaardien remarks his surprise at the rapidity at which it occurred, with Hollard CMO Heidi Brauer echoing this and applauding South Africans’ collective capacity for care and our gift for embracing change. This was the tone of the latest episode of the BASA Awards’ podcast.

When Samm Marshall sat down to speak to Ashraf and Heidi about their Awards partnership, front of mind were with the keen adjustments both organisations were compelled to make in light of current crucial needs and changes. This sensitivity to the appropriateness of an Awards ceremony during a time of great need in the creative sector was paramount to ensuring the Awards sustain their focus on being a platform that recognises success stories in business and arts partnerships. Concomitant to this was BASA and Hollard’s overarching mandate to the arts sector, evidenced by both BASA’s Artist Relief Fund and its associated fundraising efforts, as well as Hollard’s redirecting of 50% of its sponsorship fund to the ARF. Listen to how these partners have tirelessly worked to present the 2020 BASA Awards as being truly representative of the overall tone of the creative sector today.

In this episode, BASA Awards Chairman Kojo Baffoe speaks to Samm Marshall about the unavoidable changes he and the rest of the Awards panel were compelled to carry through, in spite of this ‘Black Swan’ moment, and often because of it.

Kojo and Samm unpack the adaptations assimilated into this new BASA Awards model – both the adaptations effected through our organisation’s own strategic efforts to improve, as well as those imposed through the current societal status quo.

Ultimately, the conversation examines the necessity of these events, in sustaining the arts as the heart and soul of society. As Kojo so eloquently states, “We need to keep doing things today to guarantee we have arts projects tomorrow.”