According to the chairman of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa Western Cape (VANSA-WC), Jonathan Garnham, VANSA-WC is in ‘a process of reducing its overheads and subletting its premises’.  The decision to downsize was taken after the news that the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) would not be renewing its funding allocation to the Western Cape branch of the network. This decision has resulted in VANSA effectively closing its doors, and several staff members losing their jobs. Mr Ruarc Peffers, a now...

According to the chairman of the Visual Arts Network of South Africa Western Cape (VANSA-WC), Jonathan Garnham, VANSA-WC is in ‘a process of reducing its overheads and subletting its premises’.  The decision to downsize was taken after the news that the Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) would not be renewing its funding allocation to the Western Cape branch of the network. This decision has resulted in VANSA effectively closing its doors, and several staff members losing their jobs. Mr Ruarc Peffers, a now ex-staff member of VANSA, stated that this has meant that some of the poorest sections of the arts community ‘have lost the access to resources and training that VANSA provides’.

VANSA-WC will, however, not officially be closing down until it hears the results of several other outstanding funding applications. The City of Cape Town is known to have agreed to fund various projects that VANSA had planned to run this year. However, this funding has been delayed due to a problem arising over the lack of a ‘protocol agreement’ between the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government. Mr Garnham has, by all accounts, been left in the dark as to what the problem is between these two DA-run structures. VANSA is known to have contacted the City on several occasions concerning this funding but has to date received no response.

The DEDAT, a provincial department in the Western Cape, informed VANSA via a letter in November of its decision not to renew the funding for the arts network. Tammy Evans, a spokesperson for minister Winde of the DEDAT, stated that ‘due to budget constraints forced upon us by a global recession and its aftermath, we have been forced to focus on limited areas that achieve greater impact. As a result, some sectors cannot receive government funding’. She went on to state that ‘the Western Cape Government regrets when any job is lost.  Like other companies facing financial strain, decisions regarding retrenchments are made internally’.

In the same email to the ArtThrob news desk, Ms Evans suggested that ArtThrob should ‘refrain from bias’. She then went on to say that the reason behind ArtThrob’s interest in VANSA’s plight was that she was ‘aware that you are also a stakeholder within this industry who may be affected by this decision’. ArtThrob News would like categorically to state that it will in no way be affected by VANSA’s shrinking in the Western Cape.

The DEDAT’s decision not to renew its funding has provoked some broader questions about the Western Cape Government’s policies concerning the visual arts. Ms Evans went on to say that ‘we have done our utmost to access national government funding for the assistance of this sector. The Ministry will follow up on where this stands’.

When asked why the DA had no public arts policy in the Western Cape Ms Evans stated: ‘please also note the distinction between the Western Cape Government and the DA’. This follows an equally defensive response from DA Councillor J.P. Smith late last year concerning questions about public arts policy. Mr Smith, when asked about the processes that were followed when placing Marieke Prinsloo-Rowe’s sculptures on the Sea Point promenade, answered that the ‘aggression and antipathy of one or two people in the “artistic community” relating to these statues has been most perplexing – even to the point of my suspecting mental illness with one of them’.  Interestingly, Mr Smith did go on to say that he had himself worked closely with VANSA in submitting ‘a motion on the agenda of the Good Hope Sub-council almost two years ago asking for the development of a Public Art Policy’.