 “The arts are the soul of a people: they express their joys and sorrows, their fears and their hopes. The history of our cultural heritage is one to be preserved and inspire us to new creation.” Athol Fugard. This quotation from South African playwright, Fugard, aptly captures the philosophy of Transnet Foundation for investing in the arts and culture. Social responsibility goes beyond creating economic sustainability, it contributes towards nation building. In as much as the Foundation invests in our rich cultural heritage, it also inspires the creation of new, dynamic artistic creations. 
 |
| Creating access to the arts for all. |
The strategic driver of the Foundation’s Arts and Culture Portfolio is, however, growth in the cultural industries. To this effect the arts portfolio contributes towards enabling the arts to grow and make a meaningful contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of SA.
Transnet Foundation invests in five niche arts clusters, namely:
Each niche sports its own arts activity with each activity itself creating a positive ripple effect. What all of these activities however, have in common, is that the Foundation’s investment contributes towards the growth of the cultural industry and builds the legacy of our countries artistic wealth.
Choral music has special resonance with the Foundation through the Transnet Internal Choirs Competition for employees and the Nation Building Massed Choir Festival. Through our investment in choral music, we build a community of Transnet employees and a South African nation.
 |
| National Transnet Internal Choirs Competition |
Transnet Internal Choirs Competition
The ICC is a choral music competition for employees of Transnet. The competition takes place in four different choral categories namely mixed double quartet, male choir, female choir and mixed choir, and choirs from the Transnet operating divisions participate. The project is implemented in three phases namely:
- Regional workshops (three adjudicators of the competition, each highly skilled in choral music, conduct choral music enhancement workshops for all participating choirs).
- Regional competitions (five regions consisting of a total of twenty six choirs compete in regional competitions. The overall winners of regions compete in the national competition).
- National competition (a gala competition of a very high choral standard. This is the ultimate recognition and reward for participating employees).
Through the Transnet Internal Choirs Competition, Transnet invests in the holistic growth of its human resources. This project boosts employee morale, and, by bringing Transnet employees from different operating divisions together to sing with one voice, it spreads the company message of Transnet as one company.
 |
| Boosting employee morale through the arts. |
Nation Building Massed Choir Festival
The Massed Choir Festival is a Nation Building Project of the Aggery Klaaste Sowetan Nation Building Projects. Transnet Foundation is a long time partner of this non - competitive choral music production.
A minimum of 1 000 choristers partake in a massed choir to contribute towards nation building in South Africa through the medium of choral music. The Massed Choir Festival is an exuberant celebration of our rich choral tradition. The choristers consist of choirs selected from diverse communities and are rotated on a two yearly basis. With its broad support base, the choral celebration also serves as a platform to propel participating soloists towards success in the classical music environment.
True to its nation building objective, the choral programme pays tribute to composers who have grown the tradition of and a love for choral music in South Africa. In its twenty year history, tribute was paid to nation building composers such as Mosoeu Moerane and Enoch Sontonga.
 |
| The arts shares individual expression with the public. |
The notion that arts festivals are of no substantial value has long since been dispelled. Today it is common knowledge that such festivals are economic drivers for both the cities and towns where they are held as well as for the economic sustainability of artists.
Founding Sponsor of North West Cultural Calabash Festival
The Cultural Calabash Festival is held in the North West Province in partnership with the Provincial Department of Sport, Arts & Culture and the Mmabana Foundation. It is run through competitions in different arts genres in 21 districts, 4 regions and culminates in the provincial festival held in the rural village of Taung around the 24 September annually to co-inside with South Africa’s Heritage Day Festivities. The village of Taung has a special place in South Africa’s heritage - it is renowned as the birth place of the centuries old hominid skull, commonly known as the “Taung Child”.
This festival is a platform for those youth of the North West Province who wish to pursue a career in the arts, to engage with and experiment in the arts in a safe, developmental and nurturing environment. Despite its competitive format, the Cultural Calabash Festival takes after its symbolic name and serves as a bearer of culture and the arts.
For the participants of the Calabash Festival, it is a stepping stone to bigger national arts festivals in the country such as the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The winning productions from the Calabash Festival are sponsored to perform at or attend such festivals. This ensures that they are exposed to national trends in the arts.
 |
| Our artistic wealth. |
Village Green Craft Fair at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival
The Village Green Fair is a craft market held annually at the National Arts Festival (Grahamstown). Our investment in the Village Green Fair enables a much needed economic market for crafters – craft product development programmes are in abundance in South Africa, and consequently the quality of craft products is very high. What is needed, however, is access to markets, and the Village Green Fair exploits the captive National Arts Festival audience to create such a market for the participating crafters.
At least 200 crafters from across the country trade at the Fair.
A positive spin off from the Village Green Fair is the Community Arts Awards – income generated from the Village Green is donated towards local community development projects.
The Johannesburg Station Panels by JH Pierneef
Transnet Foundation is the custodian of the Johannesburg (Pierneef) Station Panels on loan to the Rupert Foundation and being exhibited at the Pierneef Museum in Graaff Reinet, Eastern Cape Province.
JH Pierneef was commissioned in 1929 by the then South African Railways and Harbors to paint panels for what is now known as Park Station. The end product was 32 water colour panels depicting well known landscapes in South Africa. This invaluable visual art collection of one of South Africa’s great painters (Pierneef) is open to public viewing.
 |
| Transnet Theatre Trucks at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2008. |
A legacy of South Africa’s past is that access to the arts is limited because of the absence of theatres in disadvantaged and rural communities. The impact of this lack of access is twofold – it deprives affected communities of accessing the wealth of South Africa’s artistic talent and also deprives artists from performing to these communities. Transnet Foundation offers a sustainable and effective way of redressing this challeng
|