Art therapy centre gets well-deserved assistance
JOBURG – The National Arts Council gives back to the youth in the arts.
The National Arts Council (Nac) of South Africa extended its helping hand further than Mandela Day.
The council, based in Newtown, is a funding body mandated by the Department of Arts and Culture to disseminate grants to deserving members of the arts community in order to develop the arts in South Africa and those within the industry.
That, however, is not the council’s entire contribution to the arts community. On Mandela Day, the staff visited one of their beneficiaries, Lefika La Phodiso, a centre which uses art therapy to manage trauma, to aid training and to develop skills.
The aim of the visit was to get a look at what it does for the youth of the country. They also treated the children who attend the art therapy sessions to a lunch, and joined them in their open studio for a fun art session.
“We don’t only continue to support, develop, promote and advance the arts, it is equally as important to showcase the importance of the arts in healing and building a cohesive nation,” said Janet Molekwa, Nac’s communications and marketing specialist.
“Lefika La Phodiso contributes to this by offering inner-city children a safe space where they can be artistically free and the Nac team was truly honoured to have been able to be part of this experience.”
Nothing can be achieved without partnership, so the council organised book donations for the centre from Mzansi Spelling Bee, an organisation which improves literacy through reading.
The council, which previously aided Lefika La Phodiso financially, also assisted the centre in creating eight publications in which the councillors passed on their knowledge of art therapy.
