Whether they are aspiring artists, promising performers or passionate producers of prose and poetry, City of Ekurhuleni calls for artists to prepare their pioneering artistic work for the annual national Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards (TMFAA).
Previously known as the Ekurhuleni National Fine Arts Award, the TMFAA is a contemporary fine arts competition which aims to serve as a platform where artists are encouraged to transcend limitations, reconfigure and manipulate contemporary cultural, social and political signs.
During his lifetime, Thami Mnyele called for artists in the struggling communities to use their talent to express people’s demands. This was linked to growing mobilisation at the grassroots level, which encourage artists to become a part of that mobilisation.
The competition caters for artists of all ages, from all over South Africa, producing various media of art works. Excellence awards are presented to winners in each of these categories, plus the overall first prize and a special Ekurhuleni prize – this is awarded to the best work submitted by an artist who hails from this region.
With an entry fee of R50 per artwork into the competition, a total amount of R300 000,00 prize money is awarded. There is an additional prize for one of the Merit Awards Winners, which is the “Lizamore and associates Mentorship Programme and Solo Exhibition”.
Each year artists from across the country are invited to enter art works who are adjudicated by an independent and representative team of adjudicators, representative in terms of their art fields as well as in terms of the population. The adjudicators select a body of work to form the art exhibition and from that they choose the prize winners.
The adjudicators for the 2019 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards competition are:
Mlamuli E. Zulu, Nkululeko Khumalo, Molemo Moiloa Gapare, Colbert Mashile and Gordon Froud.
All artworks must be ready and suitable for exhibition. The judges will select an exhibition of the best works. The works of art must have been completed in the 12 months prior to the competition.
The opening function of the Exhibition and Prize Giving Ceremony will take place on Saturday
28 September 2019 at 18:00 at the Coen Scholtz Recreation Centre in Mooifontein Road, Birchleigh North, Kempton Park.For more information contact:
Thabo Sekoaila | thabo.sekoaila@ekurhuleni.gov.za | (011) 999 8726
Nomcebo Cindy Sithole | nomcebos@ekurhuleni.gov.za | (011) 999 8973
