A century after European descendants returned from World War 1 and sought peaceful recreation through cultural endeavours by creating a community arts centre, the Eastern Province Society of Arts and Craft still serves its purpose in the Eastern Cape’s arts scene.
On August 16 the community arts centre, now referred to as ArtEC will celebrate 1000 years of art creation, celebration and preservation in the province.
Current staff at the centre, together with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum (NMMAM), will commemorate the milestone through a series of exhibitions and celebratory events held around the city until August 2019.
The year-long celebrations will kick off on August 16 at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum (NMMAM with the opening of Adjusting the Picture, an exhibition commemorating the historic milestone through artworks from the NMMAM’s permanent collection.
Since its inception in 1918, the community arts centre operated under its original Epsac name until 2010.In 2011, it was renamed ArtEC after the board’s decision to set about redefining the society’s purpose in the community. The transformation that came with the name change included the introduction of several community-inclusive programmes under the chairmanship of Sue Hoppe.
Over the last seven years following the transformation, ArtEC has become a hands-on part of the Nelson Mandela Bay arts community through projects such as the Young Artist’s Development Programme introduced at St Thomas School in Gelvandale, as well as their gallery internship programme.The years 2015 and 2016 attracted national recognition for ArtEC through several well-curated exhibitions.
“The future, however, cannot be built around elite art production only. Educational priorities, plus truly creative community events and projects, must serve the intellectual and recreational needs of the youth in the inner city and townships,” ArtEC contributor Nicholas Hauser said.
For such a purpose, ArtEC also runs interactive and participatory events such as the drawing stokvel, the Xhosa Wall drawing project and the Pulp Press project to allow for community engagement.
“We hope to present in the future  exhibitions and events  in support of our growing art community,” ArtEC manager Nompumezo Gubevu said.