The mandate of the William Humphreys Art Gallery as a national museum of art is to collect, conserve and hold in trust for our future generations the nation’s artistic heritage, as part of the National Estate.

We believe that the Annual Report for the year ended March 2005 reflects that we have used the annual grant from the Department of Arts and Culture to best benefit for this purpose.

We have reported in this document how we have achieved success in terms of our strategic objectives as set out in the institution’s Strategic Plan and would like to summarise and highlight some of these outcomes.

One of the most important strategic objectives remains the transformation of the institute as a whole and this principle runs through all activity at the gallery. We have sought to establish the gallery in a more meaningful and lively position in the community we serve as well as nationally. Our activities therefore are aligned with the national imperatives such as skills transfer, job creation, poverty alleviation, moral regeneration, social cohesion and the building of a national identity. We use the resources and assets at the institution to contribute towards the bigger picture and arts and culture has an enormous role to play in this regard.

The collections are the life blood of the gallery and we have been able to add a number of excellent works which contribute towards our goal of transforming the collections. Other than bequests and donations, we purchased 39 artworks to the value of R588 000.00. Of these purchases 96.5% were major works by pioneer and contemporary black artists poorly as well as not previously represented in the collection. For your interest these include significant works by Durant Sihlali, John Muafangejo, Sydney Kumalo, Clive Sithole, George Pemba, Gladys Mgudlandlu, Willie Bester, Ephraim Ngatane and Sam Nhlengetwa. There is still much work to be done in this regard and availability of appropriate works and funds permitting, we will continue to correct the imbalances that exist because of our history.

Exhibitions are also a vital facet of the institution and we have reported that there was a wide and varied schedule of exhibitions from our permanent collection as well as temporary travelling exhibitions. Those of you who we were pleased to meet at the gallery recently will know that the European Old Masters that were part of William Humphreys’ personal collection are displayed permanently in the older part of the museum, but the larger part of the gallery is reserved for South African art and it is in these exhibition wings that 16 temporary exhibitions were opened during the year under review. On either side of these exhibitions works from the permanent collection are displayed so there is always something different to see at the gallery. There was a well balanced mix of established artists, emerging artists, learners’ art and prison art as well as a varied mixture of different visual art mediums. This broad spectrum of exhibitions brought in a broad spectrum of visitors and this assists us with our audience development.

We didn’t only present a very lively schedule of exhibitions at the gallery. We have had funds from the Transformation Budget with which we bought a multi-purpose vehicle to assist us with our outreach exhibitions to the deprived rural areas of the Northern Cape. These exhibitions are presented once a quarter and so far we have been to Victoria West and Hutchinson; Hopetown, Steynville and Orange River Station; Vanderkloof Dam and Keurtjiekloof; Upington; Kuruman, Bankara and Bodulong. The exhibition of South African graphics is drawn from the collection around a specific theme which this past year has been ‘Identity and Aspirations’ and connects to the OBE Arts and Culture Curriculum for Grades 3-7. The children and adults in these areas have no access to art education and the welcome in these far flung places is always overwhelming. The exhibition is accompanied by worksheets and art making activities for the children and generally gallery staff spend three or four days in the country with the exhibition and schools are invited to bring their learners to take part. The staff has only just returned from an exhibition to Williston and Sutherland which is the furthest we have taken the exhibition to date.

The development of emerging artists is a principle concern of ours and a highlight during the year was the Botaki Mural Project which was funded by De Beers. The gallery Art Project Leader guided a local emerging artist through the process of planning and presenting the concept to the funder and then mentored the whole process from the actual painting of the wall, the administration of the funding and the reporting and closure of the project.

Weekly art workshops are presented at the gallery for youths who have no access to art education.

Art and Craft workshops were presented for local crafters participating in the Galeshewe Urban Renewal Project in the memorabilia production project.

It is important to note that the gallery has a very specific target group in respect of special community projects. We deal with unemployed black women from the informal settlements in and around Kimberley, preschool children from these same disadvantaged areas, vulnerable youths from various places of safety and offenders in the Kimberley Prison. Clearly our activities are designed for those people who previously had no opportunity and still in fact have very little opportunity.

Activities are presented for children and adults from the affluent sector but these are paid for whereas the other activities are sponsored either by the gallery or private funding when it can be obtained.

Our special community projects are designed to contribute towards early childhood development, youth development, women development and correctional services.

Early childhood development

A project running now for 13 years which prepares preschool children for the formal school career through art related activities

Youth development

Art craft and workshops were presented daily for youths held at Places of Safety in terms of the Childcare Act and the Criminal Procedures Act.

Women development

Craft projects for unemployed black women have been running since 2001 and have achieved incredible success. A highlight was the commissioning by DEAT of a wall hanging for Parliament in 2004 and 12 very large wall hangings for the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg in 2005. Not only did the women earn good money for their work, but they were afforded the opportunity of meeting Judge Albie Sachs during a preparatory workshop at Constitution Hill and again at a morning tea at the time of the handing over ceremony. A fine achievement for women who had previously had no saleable skills.

Correctional Services

Craft workshops for female offenders have been presented by gallery staff in the female section of the Kimberley Prison since 2004 and the offenders have surprised us with the quality of their work and personal development. The most important spin-off here has been the rebuilding of self respect and self esteem as they have been able to learn skills with which they can earn a decent living once they are released from prison. They have recently won first prize at national level for their entry in the Gun Free South Africa art competition.

We have since introduced a programme for male juvenile offenders at the Kimberley Prison and this is expected to achieve as much success as the female offender programme.

The gallery’s contribution to the Art Against Crime initiative of the Correctional Services has attracted much attention and we have been invited to initiate such a programme in the Douglas Prison as the benefits in terms of the improvement in the whole attitude and atmosphere inside the female section of the Kimberley Prison have been excellent.

The healing and therapeutic benefits of art making are well documented and there is much work to be done – the challenges are enormous and our Strategic Plan for the following period intends to develop these projects.

We have also reported on Human Resource Management in our Annual Report as staff empowerment through specialised in-service training is another of the transformation strategies at the gallery. We are very fortunate to have excellent professional partners in our conservation management programme. Two highly regarded restorers in the field of paper conservation and easel paintings have trained gallery staff since the early 80’s and we are incredibly lucky to get this at only the cost of subsistence and travelling. This ensures that we have the best training available at almost no cost whatsoever and it is ongoing.

In the past four years we have recognised staff potential and created opportunity for most of the previously disadvantaged staff to have a career path and the opportunity for promotion now rests with them.

You will have seen from the organogram in the Annual report that we have a small establishment of 18 employees with 10 full time employees, 2 part time employees, 2 annual contract full time employees, 4 annual contract part time employees. Generally our staff bill is 72% of our annual allocation which leaves us a small operational budget.

The Auditor-General’s opinion on the state of our financial affairs is unqualified but we have an emphasis of matter with regard to the post retirement medical aid cost. My letter in reply to this issue is printed in the report after the audit opinion and we will be waiting for clarity on the matter from the Department of Arts and Culture, National Treasury and the Auditor-General before we can resolve it.

The operating expenses are broadly defined in the National Treasury template so for the purpose of this breakdown we have calculated percentages on rounded off figures from the information in our trial balance.

R’000 %

Annual grant R2 408

Additional grant for vehicle 288

Additional grant for art purchases 500

Staff costs R1 510 47

Art purchases 588 19

Vehicle and trailer 260 8

Statutory Expenditure 163 5

Insurance 58 510

Internal Audit 6 000

External Audit 19 216

Council & Establishment S&T 67 000

Annual Report 12 000

Exhibitions 45 2

Conservation/Restoration 42 1

Special Services 25 1

Special Community Projects 63 2

Maintenance 102 3

Admin, goods and services & other operations 400 12

Funding is sought to offset the expenses of special projects see Annexure 2A in Annual Report