Nelson Mandela Bay’s Arts Journey
Arts Journey
06/03/2013 09:05:07
Nelson Mandela Bay’s Visual and Performing Arts are poised to shine on centre stage as an official 2013 National Arts Festival Fringe Programme Partner.
Positioned as the Gateway to Grahamstown, the Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey offers a full festival line-up of 26 visual and performing arts events, artists and venues in the city’s flourishing central arts, culture and heritage tourism hub, running parallel to Grahamstown’s main programme from 18 June – 12 July 2013. Modelled on the world’s largest Arts Festivals, such as Edinburgh and Sydney, Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey invites festinos and arts patrons to plan Nelson Mandela Bay – Port Elizabeth into their National Arts Festival 2013 itinerary. High-calibre must-see Arts Journey offerings include prominent national visual arts exhibitions such as Roger Ballen’s Playpen, Modern Miniatures, and Greg Kerr.
Festival Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed will launch the Nelson Mandela Bay 2013 Fringe Programme on 18 June at 18:00 at the official opening of the Ballen Playpen exhibition at the recently revamped iconic heritage venue on Belmont Terrace, the Athenaeum and Little Theatre, which will house multiple visual and performing arts exhibitions, workshops and performances during the festival.
Partnerships between the National Arts Festival, the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), an entity of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality (NMBM) and the Port Elizabeth Opera House brings benefits to visual and performing artists from Port Elizabeth and surrounds, offering increased visibility and capacity-building for Port Elizabeth artists participating at the festival, thereby boosting the festival offering to festinos. “The MBDA is thrilled to be partnering with the National Arts Festival. It marks the culmination of a three year programme of investment in the Arts, through the implementation of Route 67, a public art driven tourism infrastructure project linking, restoring and evolving arts, culture and heritage venues in PE”, said MBDA Planning and Development Manager, Dorelle Sapere. In addition, the Port Elizabeth Opera House presents six ground-breaking performance pieces on Grahamstown’s 2013 Arts Festival Main Showcase stages for the first time, elevating Eastern Cape arts talent to national level.
As such the Nelson Mandela Bay Arts Journey represents the Creative Collective established to collectively market the prominent arts venues and local creative talent across all visual arts and performing arts disciplines in Nelson Mandela Bay. 2013 sees the culmination of a vision articulated in 2009 already by key players driving for the development of a sustainable Creative Arts Industry in Nelson Mandela Bay; including Arts Journey Head, Anthony Harris, the MBDA, and prominent galleries, theatre venues and institutions including Anthony Harris’ ART Gallery, artEC, the GFI Art Gallery – formerly the Ron Belling Gallery, The Tin House on Cuyler Street, the Athenaeum – Little Theatre, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and their School of Music Art and Design, Walker Digital Bridge Street, Art on Target, the Port Elizabeth Opera House and Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.
“With so many on-going inspiring arts and culture developments in Nelson Mandela Bay, this partnership will profile the creative economies of Port Elizabeth and its surrounding areas to a captive audience of passionate art lovers who come via Port Elizabeth to the Festival from all over South Africa and the world. This is a major step towards positioning Port Elizabeth as a mainstream player in a flourishing South African arts sector, the Festival’s Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed said.
Situated only 130km away from Grahamstown, as the closest airport transit point, Nelson Mandela Bay offers a special mix of culture, country, coastal and heritage adventures to round out the trek to South Africa’s Festival Capital, Grahamstown, this 39th National Arts Festival. Via the partnership between Grahamstown and Nelson Mandela Bay, the Eastern Cape is officially sealed as South Africa’s Cultural Province, delivering excellence, innovation and development in the arts by providing a platform for established and emerging South African artists; creating opportunities for collaboration with local, national and international artists; and building new Arts Festival patrons and art buyers.
For more information visit the website: www.artsjourney-nelsonmandelabay.co.za
Nina Allchurch
076 472 4407
OR Anthony Harris
072 379 5933.
www.artsjourney-nelsonmandelabay.co.za
Issued by: Arts Journey
On behalf of: All Nelson Mandela Bay Visual Performing Arts Stakeholders
Article source: http://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=32990
