NEWS

ARTFEST - JULY 1997

The Artfest has linked into the Southern African coastal arts circuit and dates have been co-ordinated so that Artfest '97 follows the Grahamstown Festival.

The idea of the festival circuit is to im-prove the logistics related to mounting large city festivals and to make them more cost-effective.

The Grahamstown festival this year runs from July 3 to 13. Artfest takes its cue from Grahamstown's closing date and opens on July 14. Thus performers will be able to come straight to Durban and Artfest '97 before returning home.

SPILL

While Durban joins other centres which carry the `spill' from Grahamstown such as Knysna, Hermanus, Plettenberg Bay and (later in the year, Hilton) Artfest is not a structured festival as such - rather a period which has been set aside to showcase arts and culture events during the busy July period which has attrac-tions such as the July Handicap, Ocean Africa and the Gunston 500.

Artfest is a community-based project for Greater Durban and is being guided in its early stages by the Stakeholders' Council of Tourism Durban.

Those wishing to appear in the Artfest Infomap should contact Fathima Kolia at Tourism Durban (Arts & Culture) on telephone 304-4934 or fax 304-6196.

e-mail: funinsun@iafrica.com.

ICC ART

Durban's new International Conference Centre launched a national competition for artworks to be included in the venue.

Among the designs called for were gates and murals at the entrance to the ICC as well as murals throughout the building. Also included was a feature fountain, carpets, rugs and sculptures.

Entries were received from around the country but KZN artists have taken a healthy slice of the R2 million commission budget.

Artists whose works had been approved are: Walter Oltman (entrance mural); Ben Nshusa (gate); Andrew Verster (design for tapestry and floor rug); Vusumuzi Derrick Nxumalo (mural); Sibusiso Maphumulo, Jabulani and Cyprian Mkhize (sculptures), and Elliot Mkhize, Bheki Dlamini, Dudu Cele, Ntobifuthi Magwasa and Nomtandazo Mtikitiki (telephone wire baskets).

Photography will be by Durban's Angela Buckland and Arthur Bozas. It has been recommended that Wendy Ross and part-ners undertake the fountain and mobile.

SING FOR FATHERLAND

The Zakes Mda play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland will be directed by Beki Nkala for the University of Natal's department of drama and performance studies. The play will run at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre from March 17 to 20 at 17h30.

We Shall Sing for the Fatherland

was first presented at the Diepkloof hall, Soweto, in 1979. It has been translated into Russian and French and won Zakes Mda the merit Award of the Amstel Playwright of the Year Society in 1978.

KWAZULU HERITAGE

The NBS Bank Limited recently presented the organisers of Durban's colourful KwaZulu Heritage Programme - staged annually in the City Hall by the KwaZulu Department of Education and Culture as part of the National Creative Arts Youth Festival - with a substantial donation to sponsor its continuance as one of the major events of this year's Youth Festival.

The KwaZulu Heritage Programme showcases the traditions of the Zulu people in music, song, dance and fine arts. It also affords glimpses of contem-porary trends in both the visual and performing arts through the talents of thousands of young people attending schools in varying areas of the province from Port Shepstone on the lower South Coast to Ulundi in the north-east and from all coastal regions to Vryheid, the Drakensberg and various other inland border districts.

SPONSORS

Over the years the festival, assisted by the NBS Bank Limited and other spon-sors, has helped to provide opportunities and broader platforms for exceptionally-gifted young black artists.

Among them are the popular Rebirth Pantsula Group and the Kwashaka Dynamics song and dance troupe.

Both teams have won national recogni-tion as winners in their categories in the well-known Shell Road to Fame series and will be featured in this year's

festival.

All young people in KZN are invited to participate in the stimulating National Creative Arts Youth Festival which begins its week-long run at various venues in Durban on May 24.

Details can be obtained from the festival secretary on 29-2060 (mornings only).

DECORATIVE ARTS

The Decorative Arts Society holds regular monthly talks at 12h00 in Mansfield Hall in Mansfield Road. These talks are invariably repeated the following day at 12h30 in Pieter-maritzburg at the Royal Showgrounds.

The next talk will be held on March 11 by London-based art historian and NADFAS lecturer Edward Saunders who will discuss Waddesdon Manor and The Rothschild Collection.

Edward Saunders will also give the talk in Pietermaritzburg but the topic changes to The Marquis of Hertford and The Wallace Collection - London.

For details on how to join the society contact Lynette Pittaway on 86-5528.