SAFM Arts programmes reshuffled
by Robyn Sassen
General mainstream press, a few months ago, proclaimed doom, gloom and cultural breakdown in the name of incipient racism and unbridled affirmative action, with the axing of a number of senior arts journalists from South Africa's official English speaking radio broadcaster, SAfm. These included Alan Swerdlow, Fiona Ramsay and Michelle Constant.
Reeling with shock, I tuned in and quickly found the dulcet tones of Swerdlow himself, critiquing film, in Current Affairs. A couple of days later, Fiona Ramsay was Between the Covers, offering her take on contemporary literature and other fine issues. Saturday morning's menu contained three hours of Michelle Constant's Arts Talkback. Something didn't tally.
After the dissolution of the Performing Arts Councils in 1994, humanities graduate Swerdlow grew his career from freelance gigs: reviewing, writing scripts, producing and directing theatre. Three and a half years ago, he mooted the SAfm radio programme Art of the Matter. Focused on the performing arts, it was scripted for a mainstream listenership. It fitted a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) brief for programmes with special interest focus, and was presented by Fiona Ramsay. Art of the Matter had a sister programme: Michelle Constant's Art on the Edge, offering weekly insight into visual art.
Arts programmes supported by the national broadcaster were an institution in their own right on television for many years. This sort of programme was less about glitz and glamour, gossip and platitudes of a society and its perceived stars, than the meat of art criticism, offering reviews, recitals and commentary. During the last year or so, priorities started shifting. Demographics profiles, it seemed, dictated audience expectation, and suddenly, arts-focused slots were gone.
In September 2004, Art of the Matter was axed by the SABC, together with Art on the Edge. SABC spokesman Paul Setsetse explained: 'Programmes that have been cancelled are not helping us attract a representative audience'. This felt dodgy for the journalists who covered it in the print media, given that the SABC has one station allocated for each of South Africa's 11 official languages. Constant clarified: It is not about language, but relevance. By shifting the accent from specialised interest into mainstream news, art is given a more respectable profile, with the dignity and contemporaneousness it warrants.
Consequently, more people are listening; and journalists like Constant, Swerdlow and Ramsay are forced to be hip and there in terms of what is happening in contemporary art, but also with regard to how it dovetails with the rest of the world's issues. Art is not an ivory tower, nor an island, after all.
In essence then, the gesture's been less about lopping off the white bits, and more about developing meaningful cohesion. Dyed-in-the-wool arts journalists have had to take art out of dusty closets, give it a good critical shake and re-examine it in terms of contemporary, and real values.
Since this proverbial kick in the arse for arts coverage, Swerdlow has been invited to stand on The Market Theatre's board (now known simply as 'The Market' since its management reshuffle), and Michelle Constant was honoured at the Arts and Culture Trust Awards as arts journalist of the year.
In line with this, culture burgeons wildly here: Considering all of the arts in South Africa, Swerdlow commends Afrikaans arts programme Kyknet, as well as theatre-based attempts to re-grow audiences, and local publishers that go forth with new literature and little funding. The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra's recent concert with London's Philharmonic is a step in a healthy direction. As is the proliferation of local arts festivals.
Arts practitioners, from cabaret artists to sculptors, new media practitioners to opera maestros, and graffitos to classical ballet dancers, are faced with challenges, Swerdlow acknowledges, echoing many in the industry: in order to stay alive creatively and literally, they must be multi-skilled. No one can afford to specialise, everyone must be versatile, with an eye on industry currents as well as marketing, business trends, time management and pragmatics.
Swerdlow condemns the Euro/Afrocentric debate as specious. He comments that as South Africans we must be able to engage with the values and expertise embodied in a European ethos in developing our own. 'I love a good argument, but it requires engagement with issues, which in turn requires awareness of them, and an ability to read and think critically.' When these skills get neglected, the arts become dicey. One could cry no media sympathy, but it was audience clout that had the potential to alleviate this situation, Swerdlow said.
The pay off is high: without poetry or sculpture, dance or fantasy, a community has no magic. And if this magic is stored in closets for select people with certain education to peruse, it's a contradiction in terms, and the magic's denied. Effectively, Swerdlow notes, the axing of Art of the Matter should be a wake-up for audiences.
Given the reflected situation, it certainly is. Constant's new arts programme forces her to keep even more firmly on the arts pulse than before. Focusing on a diversity of creative expression, from DIY to homelife, coffee table books to the profiling of creative individuals of note, Constant's broadly conceptual edge questions style and design and how it impacts our lives. Safm's arts pickings can no longer offer the fuddy-duddy snobbism they've been known for. It's out there, it's relevant and it's alive. Go listen..
