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The winners of the prestigious ACT Awards were announced at a luncheon held on Friday 5 November at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

The recipients of the ACT Lifetime Achievement Awards 2010 are industry veterans:

Peter Clarke for Visual Arts
Gcina Mhlope for Theatre
Pops Mohamed for Music

“We salute the three recipients of these awards. ACT is privileged to be in a position to honour the achievements of these exemplary individuals who have served the arts with vision and commitment”, said ACT chairperson, Brenda Devar.

The prestigious ACT Lifetime Achievement Awards honour Arts professionals whose extraordinary careers have had a profound and lasting impact on arts, culture and heritage and whose lifetime achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of cultural life in South Africa. These awards are sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation (the Visual Art Award); the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO) (the Music award) and the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO) (the Theatre Award).

Peter Clarke’s artistic career spans many decades and he has unsurprisingly, produced a large number of works and appeared in many exhibitions. He received his award from Joseph Gaylard, ACT Trustee and Ebrahim Hassim, Vodacom Foundation Manager.

Themi Venturas, ACT Trustee together with Gérard Robinson, the Executive Director of DALRO presented Gcina Mhlope with her award. Mhlope is best known for her charismatic performances, where she says she does most of her important work, using Storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read.

The esteemed musician, Pops Mohamed, a well-travelled, multi – instrumentalist, who has taken it upon himself to keep traditional sounds alive and is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s living legends of music received his award from ACT Trustee, Jayesperi Moopen and the CEO of SAMRO, Nick Motsatse.

This year, together with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Awards, was the inaugural presentation of the ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals.

The four ImpACT Awards are proudly sponsored by Distell Foundation and were presented to the winners by ACT Chairperson Brenda Devar and Rupert Hermanus, HR Manager from Distell.

The ImpACT Awards were awarded to:
Musa Nxumalo, in the Visual Arts category
Kyla Davis, in the Theatre category
Monique van Willingh, in the Music and Singing category
LIV Green Design in the Design category

Musa Nxumalo, a Soweto-born, Johannesburg based artist completed his Foundation and Intermediate photography programmes at the Market Theatre Photo Workshop between 2006 and 2008. He already has a number of successful exhibitions under his belt. He received the Edward Ruiz Mentorship Award in 2008 and recently travelled to the African Photography Biennale in Bamako.

Kyla Davis, a committed and passionate theatre practitioner, is the founder and Artistic Director of Well Worn Theatre, a physical theatre company. Her vibrant company, established in 2008, aims to create new and stimulating theatrical work around themes of sustainable and holistic development, social justice and eco-consciousness.

A UCT Honours student and flautist Monique van Willingh hails from Ottery, Cape Town. This versatile young musician has made already made her mark performing in various Wind Bands, Orchestras, Chamber and Jazz ensembles as well as Big Bands. Earlier this year van Willingh scooped the 2010 Fine Music Radio / Pick ‘n Pay Music Award for Jazz. She is currently a member of the National Youth Jazz Band.

LIV Green Design, ‘the company with a conscience”, was founded by Danielle Ehrlich and Ewaldi Grové in 2008. The company is focused on sustainable urban design. In 2008 they received the Decorex Gold Award; the following year they were awarded the Fleur du Cap and Real Simple Green Innovation Award for Design.

The nomination process for the ImpACT awards is open to the public and every year a fresh panel of judges is convened. The 2010 Awards panel was made up of Anriette Chorn, manager of SAMRO’s Endowment for the National Arts, Christina Wiese, David Koloane, a past ACT Lifetime Achievement Award winner (2008 Visual Art), past ACT Trustee Jill Waterman and freelance casting director, Libé Ferreira.

The 2010 ACT Awards were sponsored by the Vodacom Foundation, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), and supported by Classicfeel Magazine and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) with the ImpACT Awards being sponsored by the Distell Foundation.

The Arts & Culture Trust also took the opportunity to announce the launch of the brand new ACT Building Blocks Programme, in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the event. Details about the Programme will be released on Wednesday 10 November 2010.

For more information go to www.act.org.za <http://www.act.org.za>

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