Funding crunch cancels Spier’s Durban leg

By Patrick Burnett

The shock cancellation of the Durban leg of the Spier Contemporary has been seen as a major blow for the KwaZulu-Natal arts scene, highlighting the tenuous nature of funding for the arts outside the centres of Cape Town and Johannesburg.
With the Spier Contemporary, a biennial exhibition of contemporary South African art, having run in first Cape Town and then Johannesburg during 2008, the cancellation has left Durban out in the cold when it comes to harvesting the benefits of the exhibition.
It was due to be showcased at the Durban Art Gallery from mid-August, but a statement from the Africa Centre, which organises the Spier Contemporary, announcing the reason for the cancellation as “sponsorship from a public sector donor not materialising”. Although diplomatically not naming the sponsor involved - and with all concerned unwilling to point fingers - in the aftermath of the cancellation the public sector donor has emerged as the eThekwini Municipality. The Durban Art Gallery has had to scurry around to fill the space that would have been taken up by the Spier Contemporary.
Aimed at promoting the visual arts in South Africa, the Africa Centre says the Spier Contemporary has attracted close to 20,000 visitors in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and has generated more than R3-million worth of media exposure, while at the same time providing a platform for the participating artists.
But with a stated goal of the project being to address some of the imbalance in the visual art field that is “acute for artists who are not based in the major metropolitan areas of South Africa” the aborted KwaZulu-Natal leg has disappointed many.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Clive van den Berg, curator of the Spier Contemporary. “What is really apparent when looking at municipal art museums is that they are sorely underfunded and neglected and this is one of the symptoms of that problem.” Van den Berg also blamed “an administrative lack of capacity” for the sudden cancellation.
He described the influence of the cancellation as “profound”, explaining how he received inquiries about participating artists on a weekly basis. It was “unfortunate” that these artists would miss out on the exposure.
“The range of work produced in South Africa is not going to be seen there and it could only be
beneficial,” he said.
Brenton Maart, curator at the KZNSA gallery, a leading contemporary gallery, said the exhibition offered in “one swoop” the ability to see what was being produced by leading artists, an opportunity which would now be missed.
“The longer term effects are that because we are not able to see what is happening, less of an interest is generated in contemporary art. The less you see the less you want to see so it leads to a kind of apathy and a loss of enthusiasm.”
Maart said the cancellation exacerbated the problem because funders would not see KwaZulu-Natal as an important venue, worsening the existing situation.
Solving the problem would require a “significant” increase in funding for arts and culture in the province and the creation of a management system comprising artists, art administrators and business types to administer the increased funding.
This would mean that steps could be taken well in advance of planned events if there were unforeseen circumstances.
Mike van Graan, director of the Africa Centre, said: “We were keen to tour the Spier Contemporary to the major centres, but required sponsorship to do this. Hollard generously covered the costs of the Johannesburg leg of the Spier Contemporary and – from numerous exchanges with the eThekweni Municipality from 2007 already – we were under the impression that they had committed the R450,000 required to bring the exhibition to Durban.”
However, van Graan said they had been informed of reduced funding for the event in June, leading to the decision to cancel the event.
He said one of the lessons learnt was to finalise contracts and make sure they were signed off well in advance so that arrangements could be made to fill any funding gaps.

With planning underway for the next event due to run in 2009/2010, van Graan said he was in favour of Durban being included, as well as Johannesburg and possibly the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Another possibility was a venue such as Dakar in Senegal.
“We have budgeted for this, but don’t have all the funding yet. That’s the basis for our fundraising and partnership efforts over the next few months,” he said. He said further details on the form the exhibition would take would only be available in November.

Eric Apelgren, head of international relations and governance in the eThekweni Municipality, expressed disappointment that the event had not made it to Durban and said “every effort” would be made to ensure that the next version did not suffer the same fate.
He said the municipality had made it clear “from day one” that that they would supply R250,000 towards the event, plus providing the gallery space and a further R100,000 for the opening event.
He said motivating for more funding had been difficult because there was a lack of “emerging curators” involved and the municipality was left “wondering what would be left behind” after the event.

Apelgren said his objective was to create opportunities for emerging artists and the Spier Contemporary had scored low in this area in the “short to medium term”. Asked whether an event like the Spier Contemporary was not beneficial for its inspirational value for young artists, he said: “I think that the reality is that in terms of budgeting cycles it is difficult to get R500,000 for one event.”