Durban - The building of a permanent home for the then NSA Gallery in Bulwer Park 18 years ago was a cause for great celebration in the arts community of Durban.
Finally, after almost a century, there would be a venue to showcase the best of local talent, without any agenda being imposed on the selection of works due to government subsidies or political interference.
Everyone believed the independent organisation, which has always embraced diversity and inclusivity, would go from strength to strength in its architect-designed complex.
And at first, things ran according to plan. Every exhibition was jam-packed with art lovers and those who wanted to learn more about the arts.
Sales boomed, the shop flourished and the Arts Café at the gallery became the place to see and be seen.
There was a vibrant interchange of ideas with visiting artists from within and outside the country and the work done by the gallery to foster talent in formerly disadvantaged communities was applauded.
And then, little by little, the dream began to fade. At first there was nothing tangible – just a feeling that things weren’t “quite right”. Later, crowds at exhibitions thinned and the gallery started looking down-at-heel. Then, when the KZNSA took back the restaurant from the outside restaurateurs running it, about 18 months ago, complaints poured in about prices, the food and service standards.
Last year the writer was approached by a number of those close to the KZNSA, who expressed fears that the finances were perilous, and suggested that the gallery’s management was not on top of things. They also predicted that the KZNSA might not survive into its third decade.
Most of the complainants asked not to be named, but a couple were more outspoken.
Local businessman, art-lover and former deputy vice-president of the KZNSA, Peter Avis, told SM he had resigned in disgust after fighting an uphill battle to get the KZNSA council to see that unless the facility was run like a business, it was doomed to fail.
“I joined the committee to lend business expertise, because I could see where the organisation was haemorrhaging money,” said Avis.
“The approach of the current president (Peter McKenzie, who also chairs its committee and runs the Durban Centre for Photography, or DCP, at the gallery, a role for which he is paid) is so far skewed towards righting old political injustices that too much time and money is apportioned to this agenda.
“The art that is displayed in the gallery must be shown on the basis of its excellence, and there has to be a close eye kept on the balance sheets for the gallery, the DCP, the shop and especially the Arts Café.”
As for the Arts Cafe and the shop, he said, “To run a food business successfully, an inventory of stock needs to be done every day, not once a month or when the mood takes you.
“Shrinkage of stock is rife, and the café is running at a huge loss when it could be generating enough profit every month to pay all the gallery’s overheads.
“The shop is outdated, the goods it sells do not represent the best of local art and craft, and the entire building is shabby. The writing is on the wall unless there is a complete turnaround in management strategy and the employment of competent staff – and soon.”
Avis was also emphatic that it was a conflict of interest for McKenzie to be paid for his work (for the DCP).
“You can’t be a player and a referee,” he said. “If he is going to draw a salary from the association then he should resign forthwith as president and chairman of the KZNSA council.”
He also questioned what financial gain the gallery derived from the DCP.
“McKenzie has nurtured and mentored some fine young talent, but neither these photographers nor the gallery is earning any revenue from the work he does. He is not a manager or a businessman.”
Hannah Lurie, three-time past president of the organisation, agreed with Avis that a political agenda was not what should form the central focus.
“It’s enough already with the emphasis on the ‘previously disadvantaged’,” she stressed. “We need to run this like a successful business. There have been profound concerns about the shortage of money for some time, and 11 of 12 committee members have resigned because they are fed up.
“The reason for the rot is simple. The KZNSA has not been managed properly.”
Lurie said it was imperative to “bring in the correct type of exhibitions to attract the crowds and stimulate sales”.
“We need diverse, affordable art, and not airy-fairy ideas. The struggle era has been over for a long time, and the KZNSA never subscribed to apartheid ideology anyway. It has always protected all our artists and was never a race or class-based organisation.
“When the government offered us a subsidy if we would make it a whites-only organisation back in the bad old days, we told them what they could do with their money.
“Now it is about the business of art, not about politics. If the work is good enough, then it must be given exhibition space. It has to be done on the basis of excellence and transparency. We have one more chance to get it right.”
The writer conducted two interviews with Peter McKenzie, the first prior to the re-election of the committee, in late 2013, and the second just before the publication of this article.
Initially he appeared keen to reference The Struggle and emphasise the role of developmental art in addressing historical imbalances. In the second interview he placed emphasis on the new blood that was introduced with the election of the 2014 committee in November. He was also, he said, delighted that Angela Shaw, a Durban businesswoman and artist with a background in trend analysis and advertising, had joined the KZNSA in an oversight capacity, to co-ordinate long-term planning and daily running of the business.
“Yes, we had a financial crisis last year, in part because a major UK funder, who had provided around R1-million a year, withdrew,” he said.
“We could not afford the salary of the curator – Bren Brophy – or CEO Trevor Moore any more, but they graciously offered to continue to offer their expertise where they could.
“‘Change is pain,’ as we used to say in the struggle, and not all people have embraced the changes that are happening, but there is a new spirit driving the organisation forward in the face of the immediate crisis. As president I inherited a certain set of problems, but going forward our focus will be on transformation, activation and incubation.
“We want to make the gallery more relevant to its context and location, and activate spaces like Umbilo and Cato Manor so people can claim ownership and get rid of the attitude that ‘it’s not for me’.”
Mckenzie spoke at length about his work with the DCP, emphasising what he sees as its potential for uniting disparate groupings, dispelling historical inequity, and driving the gallery.
“We held a photographic exhibition in Cato Manor last year as part of the Celebrate Durban programme, and it was hugely exciting,” he said. “I believe you must back your philosophy with action. We have never had young, black photographers as part of the organisation, as we do now at the DCP… They are developing critical thinking and the ability to translate their reality and develop a new language.
“I see my mentorship as having created a synergy that encouraged that. You do it and the transformation itself shapes the path. Art as a commercial commodity has to pander to public taste, and it is all too easy to get caught in that imperative.”
Last week, Mckenzie was upbeat about what he termed the “new blood” that had been voted onto the committee. “Until recently the council was around a 50/50 split of the ‘old’ and the new. But now even the old voices are singing new tunes,” he said jubilantly.
“All those who are involved (in the KZNSA) must up their game and become involved at an intense level. The new council is much younger and very diverse. They have new vision and energy.
“We have received a sizeable chunk of Lotto funding … and this will see us through the next 18 to 24 months. From a dire financial crisis it has helped us claw our way back to start examining what the gallery can potentially be.”
Mckenzie said there were exciting events planned for the remainder of this year, and on into 2015.
They include a residency by controversial KZN-born lesbian photographer and social commentator Xanele Muholi, an exhibition by six blue-chip KZN artists, to mark 20 years of democracy, starting next month, and an exhibition by photographer Obie Oberholzer.
“We are divided in many ways, and we need to bring together all the disparate voices.” - Sunday Tribune