Artscape Women's Arts Festival 2011
WHEAT Trust partnered with Artscape this year in our fifth annual women’s art festival. The Western Cape Grantee Award Ceremony and Girl Talk Workshop formed part of the WHEAT Trust events.
Constituting over 220 people, the WHEAT Trust Awards Ceremony was attended by grantees, donors, volunteers, board members, and friends of WHEAT. The focus of the event was to thank and celebrate the work done by grantees and the positive impact that it has had in their communities. To honour outstanding grantees, 30 organisations in the Cape Town area received an award, one of which included Nasreen Solomons (in absentia), who is the first recipient of the Thera Award for young women in education. The projects varied and fell within basic grants, seed funding grants, women in leadership and discretionary granting criteria. In addition, a panel of speakers contributed to the event by providing insightful information on how to start a business with limited capital, investment strategies, challenges that women-led CBO’s continue to face in the community, and women’s ability to negotiate safer sex. The ceremony was made complete with entertainment by the New Image Ensemble, a group from Gugulethu that sang and danced wonderfully. On the whole, it was a delightful occasion enjoyed by all.
The WHEAT Trust Exhibition table which was set up throughout the Artscape Women’s Art Festival proved to be a great space to showcase the organisation. We also had a list with us, where 73 people representing various organizations signed up and offered to volunteer their skills and expertise, as well as receive our newsletters. By sending information to people on this list, we hope to increase our individual donor base.
Lastly, our women-led groups attended Elna Boesak’s Panel Discussions and tabled various points to the panellists, which comprised of academics, government officials, development practitioners, media bodies and representatives of the communities. It was good to see many of them using their voice and amplifying key issues to this panel, mainly around the challenges and the realities faced as women-led community organisations.
On the whole, the Women’s Art festival is a great way to showcase the WHEAT Trust as well as to interact with key organisations. We received ample media coverage through this event, mainly live broadcasts on Radio and Community Newspapers. Not only does it provide a platform to raise awareness of the issues that WHEAT seeks to address, it is also a good marketing exercise and an event that WHEAT should continue to partake in and actively support.
Constituting over 220 people, the WHEAT Trust Awards Ceremony was attended by grantees, donors, volunteers, board members, and friends of WHEAT. The focus of the event was to thank and celebrate the work done by grantees and the positive impact that it has had in their communities. To honour outstanding grantees, 30 organisations in the Cape Town area received an award, one of which included Nasreen Solomons (in absentia), who is the first recipient of the Thera Award for young women in education. The projects varied and fell within basic grants, seed funding grants, women in leadership and discretionary granting criteria. In addition, a panel of speakers contributed to the event by providing insightful information on how to start a business with limited capital, investment strategies, challenges that women-led CBO’s continue to face in the community, and women’s ability to negotiate safer sex. The ceremony was made complete with entertainment by the New Image Ensemble, a group from Gugulethu that sang and danced wonderfully. On the whole, it was a delightful occasion enjoyed by all.
The WHEAT Trust Exhibition table which was set up throughout the Artscape Women’s Art Festival proved to be a great space to showcase the organisation. We also had a list with us, where 73 people representing various organizations signed up and offered to volunteer their skills and expertise, as well as receive our newsletters. By sending information to people on this list, we hope to increase our individual donor base.
Lastly, our women-led groups attended Elna Boesak’s Panel Discussions and tabled various points to the panellists, which comprised of academics, government officials, development practitioners, media bodies and representatives of the communities. It was good to see many of them using their voice and amplifying key issues to this panel, mainly around the challenges and the realities faced as women-led community organisations.
On the whole, the Women’s Art festival is a great way to showcase the WHEAT Trust as well as to interact with key organisations. We received ample media coverage through this event, mainly live broadcasts on Radio and Community Newspapers. Not only does it provide a platform to raise awareness of the issues that WHEAT seeks to address, it is also a good marketing exercise and an event that WHEAT should continue to partake in and actively support.
