Mashile makes BASA trophy

Winners of the Business and Arts South Africa Awards, to be announced on Monday, will go home with a piece of art – artist Colbert Mashile has designed the trophies.
AWARD-WINNING artist Colbert Mashile has created artworks to be presented as trophies to winners of the 14th annual Business Day Business and Arts South Africa Awards, scheduled for Monday, 29 August at The Glass House at Turbine Hall.

Award-winning artist Colbert Mashile's artworks will be presented to the Basa winnersAward-winning artist Colbert Mashile's artworks will be presented to the Basa winnersThe awards recognise companies that support the arts. There are 15 categories in all, covering a wide range of creative media, including architecture, design, visual arts, dance, theatre, physical performance, fashion and music.

They are: Innovation Award, First Time Sponsor Award, Increasing Access to the Arts Award, International Sponsorship Award, Sustainable Partnership Award, Media Sponsorship Award, Single Strategic Project Award, Small Business Award, Sponsorship in Kind Award, Youth Development Award, Mentor of the Year Award, Art Champion Award and Chairman’s Premier Award.

There are two new categories: Arts and Environment Award, which acknowledges businesses that contribute to environmental sustainability through their support of art and culture projects, and Diplomacy in the Arts Award, which acknowledges foreign missions that contribute to the development and preservation of the arts.

Judges for the 2011 BASA Awards include Andrew Human, the chief executive of the Loerie Awards; the editor of Destiny Man and media consultant, Kojo Baffoe; the Sunday Independent arts critic, Mary Corrigall; Nicky du Plessis, an independent arts consultant and associate professor at the University of Cape Town; and the artistic director of Siwela Sonke, Jay Pather. They are audited by Grant Thornton.

The award ceremony will feature an art exhibition by Mashile and artists from Newtown’s Artist Proof Studio and “give those attending the opportunity to pay it forward and support South Africa’s arts community”, said the publicist, Janine Walker.

There will also be performances by pianist Bokani Dyer, the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for jazz, and The Soil, an a cappella group from Soweto. A special performance by Topthorn, one of the lifelike puppets in the award-winning production War Horse, is also on the programme.

Walker said the awards highlighted innovative and cost-effective partnerships between business and the arts and demonstrated the potential for synergy, the window of mutual opportunity and the far-reaching benefits for business, for the arts and for all South Africa.

The awards are endorsed by Anglo American. “Our involvement in the BASA Awards is part of a vision that sees arts as an indispensable part of South Africa’s progress towards being a nation which embraces diversity across all platforms,” said Pranill Ramchander, the head of corporate communication and branding at Anglo American SA.

For more information about the awards, log on to the BASA website or telephone 011 832 3000/3039/3042; alternatively email info@basa.co.za.