VIBRANT FORCE FOR ADVOCACY AND CHALLENGING THE CONSCIENCE – A message from the Artistic Committee

“The 2015 programme of the National Arts Festival has been shaped by diverse threads: the heated national debate surrounding the legacies of South African history; significant anniversaries of a number of arts icons; the global public engagement concerning the limits of creative liberty; and the Festival’s commitment to free expression and to human dignity.

We pride ourselves on providing opportunities for South African artists to take creative risks in expressing themselves with integrity about matters that concern them. We recognise the arts as vibrant forces for advocacy and for challenging the conscience of our nation; and we firmly believe that the arts play a significant role in healing the wounds of our country and building a more cohesive society.

The Standard Bank Young Artist productions have been the keystone of the Festival Programme for more than 30 years.

These awards underline our passion for celebrating clear new voices and talents in our country. The works by this year’s award winners range from re-imaginings of classics to fresh experimentations. We wish these artists well with their productions, and are confident that you, our audiences, will be challenged, delighted and inspired by them.

The Featured Artist of 2015 is the genre of “Satire”.  We hereby honour South Africa’s satirists, cartoonists, commentators and court jesters. The limits of free expression in South Africa are being tested. Our satiric artists, who reflect our society in a glittering mirror, need the support of a platform such as the National Arts Festival more than ever. 2015 is significant: it is the 20th anniversary of the inauguration of the South African Constitutional Court and its Section 9 institutions, which protect our human rights and in particular our freedom of expression.

We continue to bring about innovations to our programme: we are happy to announce the inaugural Featured Arts Icon programme, which pays homage to some of the country’s most important living and past legends; and in our visual arts programme, we have initiated the Featured Curator programme to showcase and advance the careers of notable young curators.

As always, two of our top priorities are the presentation of excellent South African productions and the fostering of international collaborations. Whilst we retain our long held partnerships with companies and festivals in Europe, our relationships with other countries on the African continent and with Latin America are expanding. We continue to engage with visiting international artistic directors and producers who have embraced the Festival as a market for scouting South African creative excellence.

The Fringe programme retains its vitality with over 300 productions, featuring works that grapple with tough topics such as arts funding, social demographics, political correctness and gender politics, and a good dose of hilarious and quirky fun too.

Working towards shaping each year’s programme is exciting and compelling. We applaud the artists who apply their creative powers to envision solutions to the challenges of our young democracy; and who reinforce our collective belief in the importance of the arts.

We express our appreciation to our funders, and to you, our audiences, who return each year to be nurtured by the arts, and to renew your commitment to the cultural life of our country.”