Staff Reporter
Johannesburg - Initiated by Tumelo ‘Tumi’ Moloi, I AM FUNDA is a charity art auction to raise funds for the FUNDA Arts Centre. The initiative seeks to save and restore the iconic community arts centre, grow awareness, build its networks and encourage organisations to support arts education in townships as a deserving focus of social responsibility projects. Proceeds from the auction will directly benefit FUNDA and its participating artists. Aspire Art Auctions is currently hosting the auction online until Tuesday, April 20 2021.
Established in 1984, the Soweto-based FUNDA Arts Centre rose in the wake of the 1976 student uprisings as a beacon of hope, education and empowerment for a number of young black students who refused to participate in the oppressive education systems of the apartheid government.
Founded through private sector funding and donations from the Urban Foundation and IBM, FUNDA sought to provide access to arts education through its initial workshop programme. In time, the centre came to establish important ties with institutions of higher education, including the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of South Africa (UNISA). These links enabled aspiring artists to attain recognised qualifications.
In subsequent decades, the important non-profit centre has faced growing challenges. In spite of the losses and hardships caused by factors such as equipment theft and the lack of grants and funding, FUNDA and its committed staff have persevered against all odds. However, now more than ever, the centre finds itself in desperate need of help in order ensure its sustainability and to keep its mission alive.
Ruarc Peffers, MD of Aspire comments: “Institutions like FUNDA have made such critically important contributions to our rich cultural history, without which we would all be perceptibly poorer. It is imperative that we do not allow consequential cultural spaces, such as this, to perish.
Indeed, we must ensure that they survive and flourish and continue to do the amazing work they do in developing the wealth of artistic practice that informs our national cultural legacy. Aspire is proud to be a small part of that process.”
The generous donations and support of artists have made this auction possible. The sale presents a unique opportunity to bid on artworks by leading artists including Nandipha Mntambo, Sam Nhlengethwa, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Tracey Rose, William Kentridge, Penny Siopis, Esther Mahlangu, Deborah Bell, Clive van den Berg, Bambo Sibiya, Karel Nel, Mohau Modisakeng and Zemba Luzamba, among others.
Visit www.aspireart.net to view the I AM FUNDA auction and register to bid.
For enquiries or additional information, please contact Aspire Art Auctions on +27 11 243 5243 or email [email protected]