The 1998/99 FNB Vita Art Prize year is drawing to a close - January 31 is the cut-off date for nominations, so fill in your online form and submit it now. The prize was introduced in 1996 in response to the need for acknowledgement of cutting-edge South African contemporary art, and is run along the lines of the Turner Art Prize at the Tate Gallery in London.

Up to six artists will be chosen by a panel of judges as well as through the public votes; each will receive R4 000 to produce work for an exhibition to be held at the Sandton Civic Gallery in August 1999. One overall winner will be chosen from these works to receive the grand prize of R20 000.

Members of the public are invited to nominate any artist countrywide, whose work has been exhibited in a recognised gallery between January and December 1998. By simply sending back the nomination form, the nominator will be eligible for the lucky-dip prize of a return ticket to Paris!

More info: tel: (011) 442-8435 or fax: (011) 442-8523.

Geoff Grundlingh writes:

It has been a very rewarding year which has seen the Centre go from no more than a set of ideals to a functioning, viable institution with three rooms on the UCT town campus, a telephone, a growing number of volunteers and nearly R100 000 in the bank.

Our mission statement, which states our aims very succinctly, will give readers an idea of what we are trying to achieve through the formation of the Centre for Photography. It reads as follows:

The South African Centre for Photography endeavours to promote a broader understanding of the medium of photography in all its forms, and to foster the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism through the establishment of sustainable ongoing programmes.

In practice these programmes each have a very specific function such as creating jobs or selling prints of South African photography. There are currently three programmes up and running and hopefully the problem of finding someone to run our printroom of South African photography will be resolved this week. The full list of programmes reads as follows:

1. Job creating programmes. Co-ordinated by Tracey Derrick.

These vocational programmes will equip participants with the necessary skills to run either small photographic studios or work as street photographers in their communities and elsewhere. These workshops will also serve to identify potential candidates for further formal education. (Annual budget R120 000)

2. Non-stop pinhole photography programmes. Co-ordinated by Jean Brundrit (University of Stellenbosch).

Working in co-operation with both art and science subject advisors of the WC Department of Education we are developing educational modules using pinhole photography as a catalyst in a diverse range of curriculum 2005 OBE (outcomes based education) programmes. These projects will initially run from a travelling darkroom bus to primary schools in previously disadvantaged communities. (Annual budget R310 000)

3. A permanent Photographic Gallery, focusing primarily on Southern African and African photography.

Exhibition programme will focus on the development of new creative talent and actively seek to generate cultural ties with neighbouring African states through artist and exhibition exchange programmes. (Annual budget R250 000)

4. The Print of the Month Club. Co-ordinator Julia Tiffin

This programme has the double advantage of generating income for the Centre's educational programmes and introducing South Africans to the idea of purchasing photographs. There will be an annual portfolio of four Southern African photographers and special limited portfolios for sale. (Start-up costs R40 000, potential annual income R400 000)

5. A biennial Month of Photography in Cape Town, starting in October 1999. These festivals will encourage participation by the general public and primarily address social issues facing communities in the region. Contemporary African photographers will also be invited to participate in order to stimulate interest in and foster cultural ties with neighbouring African Countries. The 1999 Month of Photography will bring photographers from Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to Cape Town next October (Annual budget R300 000)

6. A photographic Printroom to actively promote and market portfolios by contemporary and emerging South African photographers. Graduates from tertiary institutions, professional and street photographers and creative photographers would be encouraged to lodge a portfolio of work in the Printroom. This will be a valuable resource for the ever-growing number of both local and international curators, collectors, authors, publishers and researchers. (Annual budget R40 000)

7. Photographic workshops. These will cater for a wide range of interests and levels of competence and will become regular and on-going events at the Centre. Our first photojournalism workshop with Sasa Kralj is currently in progress and we hope to involve many more photographers throughout the year.

There is much work still to be done in order to launch the school pinhole programme, the Printroom, and to find a curator and funds for the proposed Photographers Gallery on the Hiddingh Hall campus. While fund-raising remains a necessary priority, we hope in future to generate income for our activities from workshops and print sales.

Our association with the PPSA (Professional Photographers of SA) here in the Cape is confirmed and we now share offices with them and look forward to further mutually beneficial collaborative ventures. We see ourselves joined at the hip to the Durban Centre for Photography and will share exhibitions, projects and funding requests with them where possible. We are currently working on the Shuttle 99 project and a street photography project with the DCP.

The Centre is also assisting Revue Noire with their 'eye Africa' exhibitions and workshops currently on at the National Gallery and the William Fehr collection (the Castle) This Revue Noire initiative is sponsored by the European Union and is a very useful pilot for the first Cape Town photo festival next October.

The Centre has come into being with the devoted assistance of many different individuals loosely referred to as the steering committee. This steering committee has been a floating and changing group consisting of interested and available people, but as we now have a more representative body of "members" we are in the process of setting up more formal structures such as an advisory board, a proper steering committee and each programme will have a small sub-committee to guide and assist the co-ordinator.

The Centre can be contacted at Ph/Fax(021) 4807108 or you can e-mail us at camera@dockside.co.za. We will also have a website up by February 1999 at the latest. We are going to take a break until January 4 but will keep you posted on all developments. We have a number of funding requests out there and hopefully some of these will be successful.