BASA award for Madi a Thavha

Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge and CraftArt Centre walked away with a Cultural Tourism Award for their sterling work in the promotion of the arts of Limpopo artists during the 22^nd annual Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) awards, which were held in Johannesburg on 13 October.

The Cultural Tourism Award is for business support of arts and culture projects that contribute towards the growth of communities and jobs and support the opportunities provided by local tourism.

“We proudly announce that we are the winner of the BASA's Cultural Tourism award,” said Madi a Thavha's Marcelle Bosch. “We entered the awards because of the partnership between Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge in Limpopo, our CraftArt centre at Victoria Yards in Joburg and the Venda and Tsonga artisans in Northern Limpopo.”

Bosch said that they felt so grateful that they had been recognised for their efforts in initiating innovative product development and creating market access opportunities with the Northern Limpopo artisans. “We organise arts and culture tour programmes to the rural villages and present and sell heritage-inspired arts and crafts products at Madi a Thavha Mountain Lodge and our CraftArt centre at Victoria Yards,” she said. “We are also grateful towards the National Arts Council of South Africa, who contributed to our support of the Limpopo artisans.”

She stated that, from her experience, Limpopo artists worked very much in isolation and Madi a Thavha would like to give them more exposure, especially via Madi a Thavha CraftArt centre at Victoria Yards in Lorentzville, Joburg.

“In Lorentzville, we promote and sell the arts and crafts of the Limpopo artisans. We also organise artists-in-residence programmes to connect rural and urban artists.”

Madi a Thavha further organises programmes for Limpopo artisans to spend a week in Johannesburg to present and sell their work at Victoria Yards. “In this space, they exhibit their work and give demonstrations of their work and meet with the Joburg public,” she said. “We also visit art galleries, meet with artists, visit CraftArt shops and material supply shops. In this way, our artists get new inspiration and learn more about art and design trends.”

Date:27 October 2019

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Read: 2242