Achieving the Achievable
Propositions Around the Funding of the Arts in South Africa
Cultural and Creative Industries Symposium
Joseph Gaylard
Director, VANSA / ANSA NEC
26 July 2013
Overview
• Outline of arts funding in South Africa
• Analysis of key issues/challenges
• Consideration of regional/continental
implications
• Update on Lotteries Amendment Bill process
VANSA context
• Research underpinning five areas of work:
– Network Development
• www.artmap.co.za
– Professional development
• Copyright
• NAC funding for specialist postgraduate study
– New Practice
• Public art and safety and security
– Market Development
• World Cities Culture Report (Creative Cities)
• Trade in cultural and creative goods and services
• Zero interest purachase scheme for contemporary art
– Lobbying
• All of the above
• Link to ANSA
The Good News
Arts funding in SA
• Most sophisticated and resourced arts funding
system on the continent
• Significant application-based funding available
to both public and independent arts
organisations through variety of mechanisms
for adjudication
• Publicly nominated panels/committees across
various agencies, with varying degrees of state
oversight on appointments
Public Funding and Sponsorship (2011)
Corporate
Sponsorship
17%
Grant funding
(public agencies)
50%
National Theatres
and Museums
(public agencies)
33%
20 institutions
Circa 1800 grants
R2,4 billion Rand
Grant funding (2011)
Provincial Arts
Councils
3%
DAC discretionary
26%
Lottery - Arts,
Culture, Heritage
65%
National
Heritage
Council
0%
National
Film and
Video
Foundation National Arts
Council
2%
4%
R1,2 billion Rand
Other agencies/organisations
• Local Gov - Municipal Museums, Theatres,
Programmes
• Provincial programmes
• Metros and Public Art
• International Cultural Agencies and Funding
• Business and Arts South Africa
• Private Foundations/Trusts
Problems
The Decision-Making Problem
40 people
Provincial Arts
Councils
3%
Unknown people
DAC discretionary
26%
Lottery - Arts,
Culture, Heritage
65%
National
Heritage
Council
8 people0%
National
Film and
Video
Foundation National Arts
Council
2%
4%
10 people
30 people
8 people
Funding Agencies: R1,2 billion Rand
The Top-Heaviness Problem
National
Institutions
35%
Municipal
Museums/Theatre
s
4%
Municipal
Programming
3%
Provincial Funding
5%
National Funding
53%
Public sector investment: R2,3 billion
The Model not the Money Problem
NAC vs international comparators – funding distributed to artists
and organisations (2011)
9E+09
8E+09
ZAR billion
7E+09
6E+09
5E+09
4E+09
3E+09
2E+09
1E+09
0
Arts Council England
Australia Council for the
Arts
National Arts Council
(current)
The Expectation Problem
Impact of ANSA proposal on comparative analysis
9E+09
8E+09
ZAR billions
7E+09
6E+09
5E+09
4E+09
3E+09
2E+09
1E+09
0
Arts Council England
Australia Council for
National
the Arts
Arts Council
Lottery
(current)
- Arts, Culture and Heritage
NAC+50% Lottery
The Institution Problem
The Mandate Problem
• Mandates derived from high-level policy
• Acronym soup: NGP, NDP, IPAP, SDS, MGE
• All concerned with job creation, social
cohesion, addressing inequality and so on
• Inadequate articulation of roles and detailed,
practical frameworks within the system to
address what these mandates can sensibly
mean for our sector.
Issues for the sector to address
• Problem of entitlement and culture of
complaint/adversarial engagement
• Organisational resilience as a strategic priority
addressing both internal and external realities
• Strengthened leadership and diversified skills
within governance
• Co-operation and partnership between
organisations
• Building a coherent and informed lobby
Solutions?
• Delegation of funding from the Lottery to statutory bodies
• The Missing Middle - a more programmatic approach to
funding across all agencies, and structured dialogue
between them
• Radically rethink state cultural institutions and dichotomy
with ‘independent arts’
• Building of capacity within government for cultural
planning at local level
• Devolution of mandate and resources to the most local
level
• Incentives for new approaches to corporate investment
Lottery Amendment Bill
ANSA lobby
ANSA member associations and networks include:
• South African Screen Federation (SASFED)
• South African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO)
• Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA)
• South African Guild of Actors (SAGA)
• International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People – South
Africa Chapter (ASSITEJ-South Africa)
• Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA)
• Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association of South Africa (ANFASA)
• South African Association of Puppetry and Visual Performance
• Limpopo Arts and Culture Association
The combined membership of these networks and associations, and other
member organisations, is in excess of 16 000 individuals and 2000 organisations
and businesses working across the cultural and creative industries in South Africa.
ANSA is currently auditing the membership base of the network.
Process to Date
• dti Lottery Policy Review document
(December 2012)
• Lotteries Amendment Bill (June 2013)
• Presentation to Portfolio Committee (July
2013)
• Public Hearings (from mid August 2013)
“A capable state does not materialise
by decree… It has to be painstakingly
built …. It requires leadership, sound
policies, skilled managers and workers,
clear lines of accountability,
appropriate systems and consistent
and fair application of rules.”
National Development Plan
Principles
• promote the greatest degree of efficiency and impact
in the deployment of limited resources to the larger
purposes of the social and economic development of
the people of the Republic of South Africa along the
lines articulated in the National Development Plan..
• maximise coherence and minimise duplication within
and between the functions of different public agencies
responsible for the funding of civil society
organisations and good causes.
• minimise opportunities for the abuse of the system by
civil society organisations, party political interests or
purely individual interests.
Key issues with the Bill
• 3 distributing agencies (appear to) become
one
• Members appointed by the Minister as fulltime employees, without reference to public
process
• National Lotteries Board given discretionary
power to allocate funding without reference
to process of application – significant scope
for abuse
Our proposals
• ANSA proposals based on the view that the Bill is based
on a misdiagnosis of the problems that the Lottery
faces
• Presently the Lottery’s mandate with regard to ACH is
essentially an “all things to all people” approach which
– Dilutes the possibility of a clear strategic usage of these
funds,
– Provides no basis against which the performance/ impact
of the Fund can be measured in clear ways
– Duplicates the work of other funding agencies
– Lack of clarity establishes substantial scope for
opportunistic abuse of funds
Principal Proposals
• Strengthen the grant management and administration
capacity of the staff supporting the work of the
Distributing Agencies
• Delegate funds to relevant statutory bodies according
to their capacity and competence, within an overall
‘big picture’ of the impacts that the Lottery seeks to
achieve, both directly and through partner bodies
• Bring new focus to the funds that the Lottery disburses
directly within a clear programmatic framework for
funding, in which the desired outcomes and impacts
are clear, specific and measurable
A possible framework for Lottery money
• Provincial Arts Councils (with delegated funds)
– Multi-year organisational funding for organisations of provincial/regional significance
– Project funding at a provincial/regional level
• NAC, NFVF, NHC (with delegated funds)
– Multi-year organisational funding for organisations with national/international footprint
– Project funding for initiatives of national and international artistic significance
• Lottery
– Capital infrastructure grants focused, for example, on developing new infrastructure outside of
the Metros
– Strategic grants focused on, for example:
• Bridging urban and rural divide
• Building arts and cultural leadership and management at local government level
• Research in strategic areas, aimed at identifying trends, opportunities and best practice
– With precise criterion, types of output and desired outcomes/impact specified
Some other points
• Funding to national cultural and municipal cultural
institutions should be focused on strengthening their
programming (vs infrastructure, maintenance,
operational costs) - so that money gets to artists,
organisations and companies
• Funding to local municipalities should only be given on
the basis of a clear demonstration of
partnership/relationship with independent arts
organisations – it should not be used to finance ‘vanity
projects’ that have no developmental impact