The annual Arts Alive festival is set to move into a dynamic new era with the appointment of leading South African Brand Solutions company, ZANUSI to manage the event for the next three years. Already the team is hard at work on creating a programme for the September 1st to 30th event that dovetails with the City of Joburg and Zanusi’s vision to define Johannesburg as a leading arts and culture destination on the African continent.

Says Nomahlubi Simamane, Zanusi’s managing director/founder, “Arts Alive has a very strong foundation already and we plan to build on that to create a month-long programme of activities that draws on Arts Alive specific events as well as the many amazing arts and culture activities that take place in Joburg during the month.” Commenting on the appointment of Zanusi Brand Solutions to a three-year contract (from 2009 to 2011), City of Joburg Director: Arts, Culture and Heritage, Steven Sack says, “Zanusi bring together a strong team of arts, marketing and communication specialists many of whom have experience in managing Arts Alive during the period 2003-2005. They were selected from a list of seventeen companies that tendered to run this prestigious programme. They have many contacts and networks in the arts sector and are well positioned to deliver an event that addresses the core values and objectives of the City.

‘These values and objectives require that our work addresses the needs of the poor and marginalised communities as well as providing a showcase for the best and most talented artists from Johannesburg, South Africa and a variety of countries around the world. We look forward to a vibrant, entertaining and successful Arts Alive in 2009. According to Simamane, Arts Alive 2009 will showcase a side of Johannesburg that defines a worldclass African city that can “play as hard as it works”. The benchmark for Zanusi’s three-year vision are world-renowned arts and culture festivals, among them the Mardi Gras in New Orleans and even homegrown success stories like the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

Simamane is confident this can be achieved. “If you look at what we have to work with in the city itself, you know this is an achievable goal. We have such fantastic arts and culture practitioners in the city and we aim to elevate the creative work they are doing onto a bigger stage through Arts Alive while also bringing in their peers from Africa and internationally.” Arts Alive is set to incorporate many different arts disciplines in a scintillating mix, including theatre, dance (from classical to contemporary and street), visual arts, comedy, spoken word, poetry, and much more. Longtime favourites, like Jazz on the Lake, are to remain with music continuing to be a big focus of the 2009 Arts Alive programme, details of which will be revealed in the coming month. Arts Alive will also open and close with a “zing and a bang”, so that no-one will be left wondering why they didn’t know the official programme had kicked off and come to a close.

The other side of this reinvigorated and fresh look at Arts Alive is synergy with the objectives of the City of Joburg, chiefly job creation and skills transfer, the latter being effected by job shadowing across all areas of the Arts Alive production value chain. Says Simamane “We are ecstatic about possibilities that exist with Arts Alive. We are taking a well-established brand that already has many loyal followers and taking it to the next level. It’s a chance to position the city of Joburg as a real arts destination to the city’s residents, the province, the country, the continent and the world.”