08 / A new starring role: the arts manager:

In the challenging world of raising funds for the arts and creating a sustainable environment in which an arts organisation can operate, the role of a dedicated arts manager is becoming increasingly important. ImagineMag spoke to arts manager and company director of visual theatre company FTH:K, Tanya Surtees, about this growing leading role and how arts organisations can benefit from employing such a person.

What is an Arts Manager?
An Arts Manager is essentially a business manager, but someone who has an acute understanding of the creative process and who can marry the specific needs of working in the arts industry with the demanding requirements of running an organisation – from the administrative, planning and financial aspects to the legal, strategic and staffing issues, for example.

What does the job description look like?
On any given day, an Arts Manager’s tasks might include meetings with the creative team about production requirements for forthcoming shows; drafting funding proposals and proactively seeking out funding opportunities; engaging with sponsors or board members; strategic planning; overseeing marketing, online and publicity matters; staff management or other administrative matters.

Simply put, management is “the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management) And it is the “efficiently and effectively” that is key in that sentence – because it remains the challenge of the artist/organisation/Arts Manager to find ways to successfully do what it does within its particular context.

What are the benefits of employing an arts manager?
The need for Arts Managers internationally is going to become one of those points that is laboured on for ages before the need goes away. In fact, the industry is probably going to get bored of hearing about it before the need is effectively served. Benefits to an arts organisation mean that the creative team don’t have to constantly juggle a number of hats, thereby running the risk of splitting their focus and depleting their energies, or dropping balls because they are too busy. Having someone who ‘wakes up and worries’ about managing the business and operational affairs of the organisation promotes the maximum chance for long-term sustainability and development. As such, it is up to the Arts Manager to reduce the risk offstage (organisationally) so that the artist becomes free to take more risks onstage (creatively).

How can you become an arts manager?
‘On the job’ training is a good way to experience arts management and there are a number of excellent courses with organisations such as the Arts and Culture Trust that also provide training.
The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC in the USA presents a three-year Summer Fellowship, which I, along with two other South Africans have attended. You can apply for a Fellowship by the 1st December every year and they accept participants from all over the world, making it a truly global programme.

How does arts management in South Africa compare to the rest of the world?
Globally I think we are all in the same boat in that artists and arts organisations can no longer rely on government funding, and in Africa the arts generally play second, third, fourth fiddle to other social issues. The Americans have never really had government funding for the arts which is why they are so advanced in terms of individual and corporate giving structures.

From my experience I have found that, although arts management is a comparatively new career in South Africa, we are starting to apply and implement the basic principles of Arts Management. So while there might appear to be more money or more support or more organizations/groups abroad, that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily applying themselves to the task of “managing” the art they produce. In this regard, the South African industry is not as far behind as one might think.

*FTH:K is a young, ground-breaking theatre company that works in the field of Visual Theatre. Without a dependency on any one language, its work crosses over cultural and linguistic divides and calls on audiences to “Listen With Your Eyes”. It has already won multiple awards, toured all over South Africa, Germany and Argentina, and in only 6 years, has reached more than 47 000 people.

More than that, FTH:K is South Africa’s premier Deaf and hearing theatre company with the goal of integrating the Deaf into the performing arts world in South Africa. This aim is best illustrated through its unique Tell-Tale Signs programme which is currently training South Africa’s first generation of Deaf artists for inclusion in the professional performing arts industry. There is currently no other project like it (nor has there ever been) running in South Africa.

FTH:K works include its award-winning performances of Pictures of You, Benchmarks and Womb Tide (in association with a conspiracy of clowns), QUACK!, GUMBO and Birds’ Eye View.

For further information visit www.fthk.co.za

08 / Changing perceptions on disability:

Never has the need for a change in public perceptions on disability been more apparent. While South Africa congratulates itself on the overcoming of civil society injustice and segregation, it fails to recognise that up to 15% of the population are still marginalised and considered to be second-class citizens. I refer to persons with disabilities, who experience poorer health outcomes, lower education achievements, less economic participation and higher rates of poverty than their so-called able-bodied counterparts.

Disability is seen as a problem, a burden, and parents fear that their newborn will have a physical, intellectual, or sensory disability. These are very real fears, despite the spirit of acceptance which has daily become more and more part of the broader community's thought. Where is the problem then? Our country has the best laws imaginable.

“This can’t be!” you say, “everyone in South Africa is equal!” That is true, but unfortunately not in practice. South African legislation protects all its citizens, but there are large loopholes in the enforcement of that law. However, whether a country has legislation governing the treatment of its citizens or not, the perceptions and stereotypes carried over from parent to child are extremely strong, and it is those perceptions that are the greatest barriers in allowing persons with disabilities to take their rightful place as contributing citizens in society.

How can children be protected from misconceptions, negative thought and prejudices? The child with a disability experiences a sense of exclusion at an early age. Do we listen enough to the views of people with disabilities on issues that concern them, and do we perhaps accept too easily that we "know how it feels?"

The principles of human rights and social justice for all children, social integration, equal access to education and community responsibility are detailed in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. It is unconstitutional if any child or adult to be excluded and / or deprived of opportunities and respect. Stakeholders agree that the care and development of children and adults with disabilities must enjoy more attention nationwide.

So what are these perceptions? Many of them are so ingrained in our way of thinking that we are unable to differentiate them from the truth. For example, it is a common belief that persons with disabilities are unable to be independent and certainly cannot have their own family. This is the most patronizing of all views and disables the person far more than their impairment does. Many persons with disabilities live full and productive lives, marry, support families, and are in no way sickly or unable to hold down employment. However, having said that, those born into a poor community with little or no education prospects, will struggle with employment and health whether or not they have a disability.

Further stereotypes include the thinking that blind or severely visually impaired persons are only able to operate switchboards; shouting helps deaf people to hear; blind or severely visually impaired people are not aware of what is happening around them, to name only a few from a very long list.

If society changed its attitude around disability, we would create an environment where persons with disabilities could be equal in all respects, participating on an equal basis as everyone else. Imagine if persons with disabilities were given equal education and employment opportunities… not only would they be able to be independent with a sense of self-worth, but they would become taxpayers instead of receiving disability grants from the State!

We certainly have a long way to go in addressing this particular human rights issue, but it must be said that much has and is being done to address this. The Western Cape Association for Persons with Disabilities runs several programmes aimed at increasing awareness of the various aspects of disability. Chief amongst these is the Puppet Project which utilises puppet shows to teach young children about disability, where early exposure to disability ensures that children do not grow up fearing disability. Caring Women is aimed at women who are invited to group together in spreading knowledge on disability issues and identifying persons with disabilities in their communities who may require support. We also run a training programme which builds capacity amongst persons with disabilities so that they may in turn speak to the public about their own challenges in living with a disability. Many other organisations embark on topics such as lobbying for human rights, advocacy, prevention of disability, accessibility and others.

We invite you to join us in any of these projects by writing to me at marketing@apd-wc.org.za or PO Box 1544, Milnerton, 7435, or joining us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100001991232034