Dozens of local creatives converged in East Bank Community Hall to meet with the officials from the City’s Department of Arts and Culture in the provincial and municipal spheres of government.
The meeting was organised by Camtha Arts Festival, an Elingakhali Lifela Embelwekweni Local Artists organisation that advocates issues pertaining to the local art fraternity.
The organisation said it wanted to address burning and challenging issues faced by a local artist with the department at both local and provincial spheres of government whom they accused of neglecting and excluding local artist in all their community projects.
Artists wasted no time in the meeting, firing bullets to the officials in the department and accusing the department of closing doors for Alex artists and preferring artist from Soweto over those of Alexandra. They complained about the ‘ridiculous prices’ charged when they hire facilities like halls to host their events as well as the lack of funding from the government.
Speaking at the meeting, Thumeka Nqabeni, a cultural officer in the Department of Arts and Culture in the City of Johannesburg said the allegations were the opposite of the truth. According to her, the department struggles to get artists from Alexandra when the City hosts events.
She pointed to the lack of good organisation of local artists and the lack of proper communication between the City and creatives as a major problem.
At the end of the meeting, both artists and departments agreed that they would work together and break communication barriers between them going forward.
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