Bureaucracy stalls children’s arts centre
ALEXANDRA - A local artist’s zeal to start a children’s art place is not progressing as desired due to bureaucratic delays.
A local artist’s zeal to start a children’s art space is not progressing as desired due to bureaucratic delays.
Raputsi Lehabe of Extension 7 established non-profit agency, Guardian Angels Association, in 2007 to promote his artwork. The association later became a platform for another agency, the Writers Filmmakers Arts Distributors Co-operative, which enabled him to collaborate with artists working in different art forms, namely fine arts, film, and performance.
“The [co-operative] has 15 member artists who use it as a vehicle to share issues of common interest. It provides us a base to think of solutions to our challenges, especially the growth and sustainability of our arts, and to devise strategies to lessen our dependency on well-resourced arts bodies based in the inner city, which do not fully understand or wholly represent our interests,” he said.
Lehabe added that the lack of representation by well-resourced entities in the access of resources, led to Guardians Angels’ decision to create a space where they could nurture artistic nursery school children. In collaboration with other co-operative members, they would grow the potential in the arts from a tender age.
“We want to guard against the death of our local arts by preserving it from crèche level among children with potential. In this way, we will be able to grow the various arts as career options,” he said.
Lehabe regards the creation of, what he calls, the incubator, as a viable option that will draw in external support for the children in other areas such as business skills development, arts administration and management as well.
He said in developing their confidence they would be able to collaborate with other art agencies as equal partners.
However, the initiative is unfortunately not progressing due to the delay in the approval of infrastructure plans by the Johannesburg Development Agency.
“We have approval for the initiative by authorities responsible for early childhood development centres, and only wait for approval by the development agency through its predecessor, the Alexandra Renewal Project, which has given a tacit nod for the project,” Lehabe stressed.
Meanwhile Lehabe has been stockpiling material for the incubation centre and is appealing for donations of additional material and art items.
Details: Raputsi Lehabe 072 566 3424.
