Arts in Health South Africa: ABOUT

INTRODUCTION:

Professor Kate Wells (PhD Social Anthropology, Masters in Design) ran the Masters degree class in the Graphic Design programme in the Department of Visual Communication Design (VCD) at the Durban University of Technology, Durban, in South Africa, for eight years. Prior to this she had spent some time as HOD, as well as lecturing in various levels of undergraduate, as well as post-graduate, also involving the community.

She has been pivotal in designing a new PhD in Arts and Design in South Africa. Since 2013 as a semi-retired Research Professor, she maintains a link to the DUT in Durban. Her attention is now concentrated on Arts and Medicine theory, and practice, in a range of settings. Please see blog images for details of this.

The Siyazama Project, the basis of her on-going anthropological and ethnographic study and research, is recognized as a unique project as it engages hard-to-reach communities through its unique visual communicative methodologies. The model, which employs art and design in the fight against AIDS, has lead to the strengthening of craft-based economic development for women in rural villages in South Africa, as well as in Kenya and Uganda, East Africa. A new book on the project titled Siyazama: Art, AIDS and Education, was published through UKZN Press in South Africa in 2012.

The project and its producers communicate and spread awareness on HIV/AIDS through creative workshops, local and international exhibitions, museum and university collections and research activities. 'Editions in Craft' from Sweden have been a particularly positive collaborative, with international designers working with the Siyazama groups, and one that continues today.

Background: The Siyazama Project is an important outcome of the Graphic Design’s National Research Foundation (NRF) funded niche area ‘Appropriate Design Education for Sustainable Development’ under ‘Design, Health and Community’. Further research has involved transferring of project methodologies into rural Uganda through an England and Africa partnership (EAP) project.

Personal account: Very early on in my creative career I became fascinated with many forms of craft activity and, especially, about the stories and meaning of crafts for craft makers and their communities. Visits to Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and other South American countries in the early 1990's introduced me to a wealth of community based craft making activities but also cemented a longing and a curiosity to know more about what was happening in the realm of craft making in our own province back home in KwaZulu-Natal.

About the same time the African Art Centre in Durban had seen a declining trend of tourists buying Zulu traditional dolls, soft-sculptured tableaux and beaded animals made by the small group of craftswomen from the Msinga area of KwaZulu-Natal. Together with design students and staff of the African Art Centre, I designed and implemented a plan to address the diminishing market for the craftswomen.

This plan was successfully repeated in creative workshops at the African Art Centre as well as at Rorkes Drift Art and Craft Centre in rural KwaZulu-Natal. The social climate in South Africa was buoyant and full of hope at this time, but underlying this anticipation for a better future lay a new and very threatening virus.

With funding from the British Council a new version of the workshop plan emerged. This time it addressed wide scale AIDS education as well as identifying the growing need for economic empowerment. The Siyazama Project (named by the women and meaning "we are trying" in isiZulu) was launched in 1998. Siyazama intended to improve the marketability of their crafts recognizing that the rural women are often the sole providers for their families.

In addition and most importantly, the project aimed to provide the rural women with accurate information on the transmission and the prevention of HIV/AIDS, whilst creating an environment for sharing and respecting the cultural codes of conduct and communication.

The linking of creative arts and health became a 'eureka' moment for the project! This linking of disciplines is what created a groundswell of interest, acknowledgement and hype around the beadwork coming out of the project. The women began to use their beaded dolls and tableaux to metaphorically to speak out about the ramifications, insecurities, rumours, threats and fears, which continue to swirl around the AIDS condition in South Africa. In an environment where discussion on intimate matters, sex and love is considered largely taboo, this method provided them with a way to use their voices. This time it was the dolls who were saying it all.

And the world began to listen!

WHY THE 'ARTS IN HEALTH SOUTH AFRICA' BLOG?

I was invited to attend a Durham University 'Arts in Health Mass Gathering' in Durham. At this event, in the words of Carrie McGee (Educator, Community and Access Programs and the MOMA Alzheimers Project at MOMA, NYC), I had truly met my 'tribe'!

There were 24 participants and they were from the UK, Ireland, USA, Mexico, Australia and Africa. I was the sole representative from Africa. This mass Gathering was set up by Mike White (R + D Fellow in Arts and Health) and Mary Robson (CMH Associate for Arts in Health and Education). Both Mike and Mary have been to South Africa to view the Siyazama project firsthand but also to work with our graphic design students at the DUT. The idea behind this Gathering was to find common ground in identifying the route ahead for the flourishing of this area of activity and knowledge. This Gathering involved many conversations, not only in University rooms, but also in remote Yorkshire and Cumbrian fields, clamoring over stone walls, as well as playing in a labyrinth, and singing in beautiful topiary gardens! It was a stunning opportunity to meet like-minded folk from all corners of the world and to share our experiences at several venues where we presented our vast range of projects and research.

For some time now I have been very keen to set up a BLOG which lists all of the good work going down in South Africa with regard arts in health. Once I had seen several arts in health websites from the USA, Australia and the UK, I was determined to get ours, in SA, up and running as quickly as possible.

Mike White writes: What a remarkable event our international ‘critical mass’ meeting, held last month in Durham, turned out to be. The opportunity to have almost all our favourite people from research and practice in the arts in health field – from the UK, USA , South Africa, Australia, Ireland and Mexico – all together in the same room was both daunting and exciting. ‘Critical mass’ now seems too portentous a description for the flights and fancies of our spiralling conversation that was facilitated with all the haste and purpose of a TV makeover show. Over a weekend of four half–day sessions we explored our understandings of community-based arts in health in a global context, identified key issues for international collaboration in both practice and research, and envisioned what success would look like in five years’ time with a practical timeline to get us there.

A quick picture-trip through the work been undertaken in Siyazama project over the past decade and more...