Arts MEC Fezeka Bayeni happy with ‘promotion’

For the woman who is now in charge of running the provincial arts portfolio, she could not be more pleased with her “promotion”.

Because that is exactly what National Arts Festival CEO Tony Lankester called it when welcoming new sport, recreation, arts and culture MEC Fezeka Bayeni at the official opening of the 45th instalment of the event at The Monument in Makhanda on Thursday.

“It doesn’t matter where you’ve come from, arts and culture is always a promotion,” he quipped.

In her comments shortly afterwards, a beaming Bayeni agreed, saying the breaking news of the day was that “I got promoted!”

The light, off-the-cuff banter and exchange was exactly in the spirit of what Lankester says was the reason for changing the format of the opening proceedings which, he pointed out, had been typically underlined in the past by politicians making prepared speeches, rather than the focus being on what the festival was really all about.

“We need the politicians to express their views, yes, but what is far more important here is the artists and their art.

“This is what the festival is all about.”

Lankester said he would pre-empt one of the usual questions he was asked each year, which was: “But what is different this year?”

“The point is every year is a different story. You will find something different on every page of the programme.

“What we strive for is to be better at what we do, to put more into what we do.”

Making the festival more accessible to everyone was one of the priorities, Lankester said, pointing out that the 2019 Creativate exhibitions – which explore the spaces where creativity and technology meet – had open access.

For her part, Bayeni praised the social cohesion that the arts created.

“It’s precision. That’s the beauty of art. It makes you cry and laugh.”

She added that the arts and creative industries contributed to the economy of the country.

“Art is not just a hobby, it’s a real business,” Bayeni said.

And of the enduring success of the festival after so many years which attracted an increasingly broader interest, she declared: “This is no longer a national arts festival, it is an international arts festival.”

The provincial government this year contributed more than R13m to the festival.

An economic impact study in 2016 indicated that the festival contributed in excess of R377m to the GDP of the province and R94m to the city of Makhanda.