Open call: National Eisteddfod Academy adjudicators in SA

The NEA Young Performer Awards Competition includes over four elimination rounds and provides a prestigious platform where the best young performers in all the various regions of the National Eisteddfod from the preceding year can come together and participate, compete and showcase their talents, across the full spectrum of artistic and cultural diversity. This competition was launched in 2004 and has since then involved more than 23 000 entries and over R500 000 in prize money.

Interested practitioners in the arts industry are invited to send their CVs to edu@eisteddfod.co.za.

Former National Arts Festival director, Ismail Mahomed, said: “If the NEA Award winners represent the next generation of artists, I am filled with great hope for the creative industries. Too often in the arts sector, we discuss transformation only in narrow race and cultural terms. The NEA has demonstrated how it goes beyond that discussion. The NEA promotes diversity of expressions across genres, styles and newer evolving forms of urban cultural expressions without getting bogged down by the restrictive politics of race, language and culture.” 

Since the founding of this competition in 2004, many well-known personalities in the performing arts industry have been part of the adjudication panel, including Mimi Coertse, Ismail Mahomed, Sibongile Mngoma, Petro Malan, the late Gloria Bosman, Heinz Winkler, Herold van Buuren, Bianca le Grange, Vinette Ebrahim, Iain MacDonald, Roderick Jaftha, Diane Coutts, Renata Stuurman, Fiona Budd, RJ Benjamin, André Stolz, Heidi Edeling, Malie Kelly, Izak Davel, Henry Mylne, Salome Sechele, Ignatius van Heerden and David Johnson.

Email Di Sparks at disparks@artslink.co.za or call 073 208 8483 for more information about this call.