Individuals and organisations who have made a significant contribution in the sectors of arts, culture, language, libraries, archives, heritage and museums across the province were honoured for their work during a special awards ceremony recently
On Wednesday 12 October, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport hosted the provincial Cultural Affairs Awards for the first time since 2019, following a break in the awards due to the Covid-19 pandemic. A number of theatre performances were also held during the event held at the ArtsCape theatre.
The Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport, Anroux Marais, emphasised the significant role that arts and culture plays in the local economy by providing jobs for many people.
She added: “People come from all over the world to attend shows at our theatres, to visit our museums and to learn about the unique heritage and culture we have in our beautiful province.
“I want to congratulate and thank all the nominees for all that you are doing to keep growing our arts, culture, heritage, language, archives and libraries sectors. Please keep doing what you are doing, as you are helping us to bring hope and joy to so many people in the province.”
Head of Department Guy Redman emphasised the important role that those in the arts and culture sector play saying: “Artists are courageous people because they seek the truth and they speak the truth. Artists bring imagination to us and we cannot hope without imagination. Today we honour people who have shown a great deal of resistance during a very dark time in our country.”
There to represent the Overberg were staff members of the Gansbaai Library and the Overstrand Yeboneers who were finalists in the Substantial Contribution Towards the Development and Advancement of Reading and Literacy (including IT literacy) category and the Genadendal, Greyton and Voorville Disability Forum nominated in the category Most Innovative person / NGO Contributing to Support People Living with Disability.
The Genadendal, Greyton and Voorville Disability Forum, an NPO that was established to provide support for mentally handicapped people in the area, were the winners in their category.
Other winners included Siphokazi Jonas (Most Innovative Young Artist award), Leslie Kleinsmith (Most Innovative contribution of a Legend to the Arts community) and Cape Town Opera (Neville Alexander Award for promotion of multilingualism).
Minister Marais also bestowed Ministerial Awards on nine recipients, including opera singer Virginia Davids and actor Abduragman Adams.
