TICKETWEB

Africa Media Entertainment (AME) have confirmed that they are the local licensors of the onlineticketing company, TicketWeb, which will be available to the public from October. This guaranteesTicketWeb a significant market share in the South African ticketing industry, as AME owns SA's leadingconcert promoter and organiser, Big Concerts, and The Dome multi-purpose and entertainment venuein Johannesburg.

TicketWeb will offer South African consumers new and innovative ways to buy tickets for their favouritevenues and events. To illustrate, the TicketWeb System gives consumers the ability to purchase ticketsthrough its automated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) tele-ticketing system, through operator-staffedcall centres, at remote outlets, online over the Internet, at box-office, and soon at remote Internet-basedkiosks and via cellular phone browsers.

TicketWeb will be located at conve-niently accessed sales outlets nation-wide, and will be networkedwith the company's data centre via the Internet.

Details from (011) 787-6402.

IN MEMORIAM

D'ARTS is sad to note the passing last month of Mario Schiess, possibly best-known to Durban theatreaudiences for his adaptation and direction of Kafka's one-man drama, Report to an Academy, some 20years ago when Marius Weyers gave a brilliant performance as the ape who describes his attempt atbecoming human by learning to speak.

Durban performers Esmael Texeira and Catherine Mace have also been directed by Mario Schiess andCatherine takes two of these plays, The Chosen and The Last Tango in Heaven, to the fringe of theGrahamstown festival.

DDC '98 BEST YET

It's a fashion event that never fails to raise comment and, by all accounts, the 1998 The Independent onSaturday MTN Pulse Durban Designer Collection held last month was the best ever.

The Young Designer was won by third year M L Sultan Technikon student, Carmen Govender.

In the Invited Designer category, Colleen Eitzen took the honours with her "Urban Decay" collection.She was also judged DDC Best Invited Designer in 1993.

The Debonairs Dashing Dude Collection was won by Francois Vedemme for his sleek, suaveinterpretation of the "black tie" design brief.

KZN-2-NITE ARTS

Every Friday, the regional television station KZN-2-Nite is given over to entertainment.

Producer of this slot is Clive Read who uses D'ARTS as a major guideline for the content of hisprogramme. So make sure you get featured in D'ARTS!

KRIBEN IN SALAMANCA

The University of Salamanca, founded in 1218, is Spain's oldest surviving univer-sity. Durban academicKriben Pillay recently presented a paper there which focused on the search for identity in South AfricanIndian theatre.

Durban actor Rajesh Gopie concluded the seminar series with his one-man show, Be Proud, Be Yourself,becoming the first South African to present a South African theatre work in Spain.

Besides the seminar series, Kriben became the first South African to be invited as visiting professor tothe University of Salamanca where he facili-tated a theatre workshop for undergra-duate students ofEnglish and taught a doctoral course on South African Indian Theatre - the first time a formal course onthis subject has ever been taught. He also ran a workshop on transpersonal awareness for participantsinvolved in human rights issues.

The university's rector, Professor Ignacio Berdugo, acknowledged the historic participation of the SouthAfricans at his university by formally inviting Ambassador van der Ross and Kriben Pillay to set up aSpanish-South African exchange programme for students and academics with the full backing of theuniversity.

MAGICAL SOCIETY

Interested in magic or in becoming a magician yourself? SAMS, the KZN branch of the South AfricanMagical Society, holds regular meetings on the first Wednesday of every month. The next meeting takesplace on July 1.

To join the society, phone Desmond Smith on 44-3810 (a/h).

Magic provides good entertainment. If you want to book a magic show for a function, contact ShaunWilson on 465-7000 (a/h).

NANDA'S MURAL

Internationally recognised cartoonist and artist Nanda Sooben has completed a 150 sqm mural at theWheel Shopping Centre which features sports heros and their winning moments.

It took Nanda five months, working alone and after hours, to complete the Sports Wall of Fame, witha break during December and January when he developed a bout of tennis elbow.

Nanda Sooben's social realist paintings have been exhibited and acclaimed in solo exhibitions in Durban,New York and Rio de Janeiro. His political cartoons are published in 200 newspapers around the world,including The Saturday Independent, Post (KZN), Witness, New York Times, Washington Post andToronto Sun.

Trained as a computer animator at the Parsons School of Design, New York, Nanda's works include apeace mural in New Jersey which was featured on ABC TV, as well as one commissioned by the EarthSummit organised by the United Nations in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

KYRIE HARDIMAN

London-based dancer, choreographer, teacher and artist Kyrie Hardiman will present various workshopsand perfor-mances in South Africa, courtesy of the British Council. She will give three workshops inDurban: for dancers at the BAT Centre; with the Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, and for ArtWorks Trust.She will also perform at the NSA Gallery on July 26 at 16h00 at the opening of an exhibition of workby Tony Starkey and the African Art Centre.

ALLIANCE EVENTS

In August, the Durban arts community will sadly say farewell to the current Alliance Française director,Frédéric Dart, who has generated a significant amount of projects during his tenure.

The Alliance and Frédéric, were among the three finalists of the Arts & Culture Trust of the Presidentaward for inter-national sponsor of the arts for the year. However, the award eventually went to theFrench Institute of South Africa, so - in a way - Frédéric was a winner.

He's not resting on his laurels, though, before he goes and there is a busy programme at the Alliance inJuly.

Jul 12 (21h00): Live TV retransmission at the Alliance of the final of the '98 world soccer cup in France.

Jul 14 (19h30): Bastille Day celebration at the Alliance with a French buffet. Booking essential byphoning 23-9582.

Jul 26 (16h00): Opening of an art exhibition of Zulu artists sponsored by Alliance Française at the NSAGallery, featuring Joseph Manana's paintings and sculptures by Jabulani Mkhize and Lindelani Ndinisa.

July 27: French language courses for the second semester 1998 start on July 27. Registration opens onJuly 13. Phone 23-9582. (The Alliance offers Durban Arts members a discount on language courses)

WE DID IT!

You had to be there!

A much bandied-about saying but if I could have packed up the D'ARTS team, all our readers, supportersand adver-tisers as well as the Durban Arts staff and board of directors, I would have spirited them allto Cape Town to Planet Hollywood to be there when D'ARTS received the Arts & Culture Trust of thePresident's award for the publication of 1997/98 (sponsored by MIDI Trust).

It was a glittering evening of who's who in the arts and culture world, the food was great (that much I doremember!) and the company stimulating. Award-winning poet and MP Wally Serote was at our tableand much good conversation and fine Cape wine flowed!

Happily, I wasn't alone because Durban Arts accounting officer, Doris Whitmore, was on holiday in CapeTown baby-sitting her grandchildren so she was able to share some of the glory afforded to D'ARTS andDurban Arts.

It was also a nice surprise to find Ketan Lakhani in the audience rootin' for the Durbs team. Ketanfounded D'ARTS magazine with Tom Dennen some 15 years ago so they must also take a bow.

For Durban to be acknowledged in the first year of the Arts & Culture Trust of the President awards wasa great honour and we were all full of pride for our city. It's a wonder you couldn't hear the cheers backhome in Durban!

President Mandela was unable to be at the function but his message was read by MC Thandiwe January-McLean, director of the Desmond Tutu Educational Trust.

The winners were put up in the magnificent Table Bay Hotel for the night, courtesy of Sun Internationaland ACT and, apart from the handsomely-framed award, I was presented with a limited edition print bytop artist Louis Janse van Vuuren and a personal cheque for R10 000. Too much happiness!

My heartfelt thanks go to anyone who has ever had anything to do with D'ARTS and, particularly, to theboard of Durban Arts and its past and present directors for their support. We now have nationalacknowledgement on a very high level that D'ARTS is doing a good job!

Special thanks are due to my husband, Peter Gardner, for his incredible support and patience, especiallywhen the chaos at deadline time invades his home. Once he had a three bedroomed house. Now he hasa one-bedroomed house with two office spaces!

Caroline Smart (D'ARTS Editor)

WHO CHOSE US?

The winners of the awards were chosen by the Arts & Culture Trust of the President's board of trustees.These include award-winning writer Andries Oliphant (chairperson); Richard Cock, director of theNational Symphony Orchestra; Pieter Fourie, director of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees; AngeloGobbato, director of Cape Town Opera and head of the UCT opera school; Nobel literature prize-winnerNadine Gordimer, and internationally-famous film producer Anant Singh.

There's also actor, dancer, educator and choreographer Jay Pather (artistic director of Siwela Sonke);award-winning choreographer, dancer and actress Nomsa Manaka, and artistic director of the PACTBallet Company, Dawn Weller.

Nise Malange, director of the Culture and Working Life Project is among the trustees as is AndreOdendaal, administrator of the Robben Island Museum, renowned musicians Abdullah Ibrahim and Sipho`Hotstix' Mabuse as well as Marilyn Martin, director of the SA National Gallery, and Sidney Selepe,director of arts, culture and heritage, Gauteng. Representing the sponsors are assistant general managerof Nedcor Bank, Ivan May, and marketing director of Sun International, Tobin Prior.

That's very illustrious company! D'ARTS is honoured to have been judged a winner by such luminariesin the arts and culture field.

WHAT IS ACT?

The Arts and Culture Trust of the President was originally launched in October 1994 by Nedcor Bankand Sun International, each of whom committed themselves to an initial amount of R1m to be followedby R500 000 in each of the following two years. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Techno-logy pledged R1m over three years, while NNTV committed itself to R1m's worth of free air-time (nowfallen away as NNTV no longer exists after the SABC's process of transformation).

President Mandela agreed to serve as chief patron of the trust and to the name of Arts & Culture Trustof the President.

Trust funds are generated from the in-vestment of its capital, contributions raised through clients' use ofNedbank's Arts and Culture Trust affinity products such as cheque books and credit cards, and throughfundraising events as well as donations from the private sector.

The Arts & Culture Trust of the President is administered by Article 27 Arts and Culture Consultants.

ACT funds creativity, infrastructure, education and distribution in all the art disciplines - film, music,theatre, dance, craft, literature, visual art, as well as arts administration and community art.

The ACT trustees meet at least twice a year to consider applications, normally in May and November.The next meeting is on November 19 and the deadline for applications is October 16.

Contact Nicky du Plessis on 082 901-0735. Or write to Suite 234, Postnet, PO Box 51037, MusgraveRoad, 4062.

ACT CHAIRPERSON

"On behalf of the Arts and Culture Trust of the President, I would like to extend our warm felicitationsto you and your publication on winning the 1998 Arts and Culture Trust of the President's publi-cationof the Year Award sponsored by Midi Trust.

ACT and its sponsors believe that information and discussion on the arts and culture are vital fordevelopment in this field. In this regard, D'ARTS magazine has done sterling work over many years.Furthermore, it has set an example of what can be achieved through commitment and a love for the arts.It is in recognition of this work that the ACT Trustees decided to honour your publication with the aboveaward.

We wish you even greater success in the years ahead."

Andries Walter Oliphant

Chairperson: ACT

MIDI TRUST

"The MIDI Trust is a non-profit orga-nisation that is dedicated to the support and growth of a vibrant andcreative South African music industry. The Trust was born out of discussions between Peter Stuyvesantand the Musicians Union of South Africa (MUSA).

The aim of the MIDI Trust is to encourage new and potential impre-sarios, producers, promoters, tech-nicians, stage managers, artist managers and road managers, who need training, assistance and guidance.

Although music forms just part of the many arts disciplines that the D'ARTS magazine covers, we feelthat the publication is as committed to the fur-therance of the local music industry as we are.

We congratulate you for winning our first award and hope that D'ARTS goes from strength to strength."

Rosalie Katz

(General Manager, MIDI Trust)

MI HLATSHWAYO

"On behalf of the management, staff and board of Durban Arts, I would like to congratulate you as ourPublicity Officer for your excellent achievement in winning the 1998 Arts and Culture Trust of thePresident's Publication of the Year Award sponsored by Midi Trust for our D'ARTS magazine.

It bears testimony not only to the co-ordinators and management of Durban Arts but also to the artscommunity of Durban who have co-operated effectively with you in your attempt to access the variousactivities in all disciplines in and around Durban.

We appreciate that, because of your love of the arts, you have gone the extra mile by including not justthe activities of Durban Arts but those of all the citizens and organisations in and around Durban, nomatter whether at established or grassroots level, big or small, professional or amateur.

On behalf of the board, I would like to say that we are thrilled in that out of many other participants ourown Caroline Smart came out a winner. We would also like to thank the Arts & Culture Trust of thePresident for affording us the honour of picking D'ARTS as the winner of print publication of the year.

May you for ever shine so that through your work, we know that Durban Arts and the whole DurbanMetro will shine and make this city the true `City of Arts'."

Mi Hlatshwayo

Director of Durban Arts

LETTER FROM NOEL

In more than 11 years at Durban Arts I am most proud of my battle to save D'ARTS when circumstancesjustifiably argued to close it down. When I arrived, in 1987 the magazine was clearly under a cloud. Asympathetic but clear-headed board of directors ruefully thought it a good idea for D'ARTS to quietlyslip away from the arts scene in Durban.

Evidence of its humble standing in the community was about R50 in advertising revenue for the wholeprevious year. The board chairman, Professor Sneddon, had no doubt about its potential but was baffledby its lack of success.

All it required, of course, was a chance to run until it found its feet and its reading public.

First there was talk of two issues a year and then every second month. I was in a stubborn mode and saidit had to be monthly. A couple of years ago before the money crunch, advertising revenue rose to R50000 over 12 months.

The rest is history .. and Caroline Smart!

Surely this award should open corporate eyes to the need for sponsorships to fund D'ARTS to a level thenew South Africa could be proud of, with recognition from the arts fraternity worldwide?

Noel Fairhurst (Former DAA director)

LETTER FROM ATLAS

"Atlas Printers is proud of its long association with D'ARTS magazine for the past 15 years and an evenlonger association with Durban Arts Association for many years prior to that," says Atlas director, JayGokool.

"We are overjoyed at the recent Award made to D'ARTS magazine. Special con-gratulations go toCaroline Smart who has dedicated so much of her efforts to make D'ARTS the first of its kind in SouthAfrica.

"D'ARTS makes us proud. We congratu-late the magazine for this impressive achievement and hope thatwe may con-tinue to work together for many pro-ductive years to come."

D'ARTS - DEFINITELY GIRL-POWERED!

Now's a good time to introduce you to the D'ARTS team you read so much about. It's a small but highlyactive and committed bunch of people who all work part-time.

Caroline Smart is the editor of D'ARTS magazine but this is one of several `hats' she wears. She is anactress, voice artiste and television producer. She also writes an arts column for the Daily News Tonighttitled Smart Talk. Sometime in all this, she runs a home!

That home is actually the D'ARTS office and the magazine is completed there up to cameraready statuswhen it is then presented to Atlas printers who scan in the photographs before trans-ferring the pages tothe printing presses.

Audrey Coetzee works two mornings a week and does virtually everything from typing and filing toselling advertising space and answering the innumerable (and they ARE innumerable!) queries from thepublic. These range from `where can I buy a plastic bunch of grapes' to `I've got a painting, how muchis it worth?'

For the last four years, David Coleman was the assistant editor of D'ARTS and

the magazine benefited enormously from his extensive journalistic expe-rience and knowledge. His deathin May was a sad loss to all.

However, the gods smiled on us when Marianne Meijer came back to the magazine. Another experiencedarts journalist, she had worked on D'ARTS as assistant editor about five years ago but ill-health hadforced her to give up. A visual artist herself, she writes an arts column for The Mercury and is vicepresident of the NSA.

Esther Vumba has the unenviable job of keeping the D'ARTS office tidy (she only manages that whenthe editor is safely out for a while!) amid the mountain of paper that any publication seems to generate.She also has an uncanny knack of knowing when a cup of tea or coffee would go down well!

Norma Mnqwazi mainly works in the garden - keeping the plants from inva-ding the house! - as well asstamping envelopes and other useful duties.

(Ed. Note:"To offer an idea as to the chaos around deadline, Marianne recently acquired a new cellphone. It rang for ages the other day before she realised it was hers, thinking it was one of the otherthree phones or the fax!)

MISSING PERSONS

There are certain people important to D'ARTS missing from the group photos.

Durban Arts accounting officer Doris Whitmore keeps D'ARTS very much on its toes but the magazineis just one of the complicated projects that Doris has to look after. It's her job to ensure advertisingrevenue is collected and that D'ARTS stays within its budget, so she cracks the whip a lot!

The administration of a R1.65m grant from Metro Council is quite a daunting financial task, bringingwith it respon-sibility of good governance. The grant also must be distributed according to the principlesof Durban Arts which are to spend as much money as possible on projects and keep administration coststo a minimum.

In the 1996/7 financial period, 70 different arts bodies and their subsidiaries benefited from Durban Artsfunding, with over 360 payments being made to individual presentations.That's a lot of cheques and anawful lot of paperwork! But Doris handles every-thing with a feisty energy and a dry sense of humour.Mind you, her desk is a sight to see, sometimes!

REJOICE

Thenjiwe Rejoice Ngcobo works for D'ARTS on a part-time basis when the magazine has to be packedfor pro-cessing at Durmail**.

Her good humour and amenable nature are wonderful in this period when time is of the essence and we'reworking against time to get the magazine out.

Durban-born and educated at Lamont-ville Secondary School, Rejoice did an office management courseat ML Sultan Technikon and later worked for COSATU Culture, organising cultural groups. Then shejoined the NCC (before it became amalgamated with Durban Arts) and worked as assistant to Brenda,now Durban Arts's community development officer.

PATRICK VERE

**This packing, bundling and posting process was ably and efficiently carried out by Patrick Vere ofDirect Contacts for many years until budgetary restraints meant we had to handle this daunting task -closely resembling a massive paper chase - from within the association!

DAVID COLEMAN

Readers will have seen in the last issue that D'ARTS lost its assistant editor with the death of DavidColeman.

Michael Green's tribute said it all and the magazine team is committed to staying true to David'sinsistence on accuracy and unbiased reporting.

D'ARTS is also indebted to Michael Green for his advice on journalistic quality to ensure that wecontinue to produce a magazine of integrity and high standard.

CONGRATS TO FELLOWS!

While we're so busy at D'ARTS con-gratulating ourselves on our achieve-ments, recognition is also dueto our fellow winners, Sharlene Versfeld and Illa Thompson of Publicity Matters.

Hard-working Sharlene and Illa, always strong supporters of D'ARTS and indeed all arts projects inDurban, were joint winners with Jonathan Hurwitz, Market Theatre senior publicist, of the Arts &Culture Trust of the President's award in the category of arts and culture publicists of the year.

Included in the esteemed (we certainly felt!) team from Durban in Cape Town for the awards wasFrédéric Dart who is the director of the Alliance Française de Durban which was among the final threenominees in the category of international sponsor of the year.

D'ARTS ON DURBANET

Internet browsers around South Africa and around the world are beginning to find D'ARTS on theInternet. This would not be possible without Colin Muller who does the magazine the great service ofincluding it on his Internet web site, Durbanet.

The editorial content of the magazine automatically goes onto the Internet as do those advertisersthat D'ARTS has managed to persuade to pay an extra fee to promote themselves as well as supportthe magazine through the electronic media.

D'ARTS internet address is http://durbanet.co.za.

STOP PRESS: Durban North dance teacher Minette de Klerk has been awarded the Pat HardyScholarship to attend a six-week teaching seminar in Chichester, UK. The Cecchetti-basedscholarship was awarded to a South African because 1998 is Cecchetti's 70th anniversary in thiscountry. Congratulations, Minette!