Anet Pienaar-Vosloo ready to take Baxter into the future
There’s a new chairwoman at the helm… and she has many bright ideas, writes Theresa Smith
‘ILOVE throwing a party, it is my forte,” Anet Pienaar-Vosloo says, throwing her arms open wide. The new chairwoman of the Baxter Theatre Centre Board, Pienaar-Vosloo doesn’t mean it in the sense of balloons and muffins – she means big ticket events that raise lots of money, and she is good at it.
She thinks love of a good party could be one of the reasons the Baxter Theatre Centre Board have appointed her as the new chairwoman, the first woman to hold the post in its 40-year history.
“I’m not that good at asking for money. I would rather give people something in return,” she explains.
Pienaar-Vosloo has been on the Baxter Board for about 10 years, but was still surprised to be chosen as chairwoman.
She should not have been – Pienaar-Vosloo has been involved tangentially, as a journalist, and directly in the arts as a co-founder of, among others, KKNK, Knysna Oyster Festival, Aardklop, Windhoek Arts Festival and Bloemfontein Arts Festival (now Vryfees).
She points out the function of any theatre’s board has changed over the past few decades. More than 20 years ago each province had its own sponsored arts organisations, “but now we have to stretch our wings and our imagination to try and raise funds”, she said while seated on one of the brightly coloured settees dotted around the Baxter’s mezzanine levels.
It was her idea years ago to take some of the extraneous chair props from backstage and have them recovered to be used by theatre patrons.
In the past she has seen how some people have come onto the Board, attend meetings without ever saying a word and eventually leave – she wants to change that.
At her first Board meeting, Pienaar-Vosloo wants to shake things up: “They have to adopt a project of some sort, whether it is networking or bringing more people to the theatre or introducing me to possible sponsors, or even mentoring some of the staff. They have to commit themselves,” she said.
Also the co-chairwoman of the Adele Searll 100 Ladies Club and on the board of the Suidoosterfees, Pienaar-Vosloo feels the Baxter is the most representative of all the theatres in the Western Cape, in terms of what gets presented on the stage.
A regular theatregoer, she holds up recent successful drama The Fall as an example of how the revolution has come to the stage.
She wants to extend that to the Board and find members who can highlight their experiences with music and experimental theatre.
“People who can bring some alternative ideas to the table.”
All bright ideas aside, Pienaar-Vosloo is acutely aware she cannot ignore one of the most important jobs the Board is traditionally responsible for, that of financial oversight: “That is a priority.”
She sees the function of the Board to be that of promoting the theatre centre, while leaving the actual stage work to the professionals.
“I would like to see that we start using this venue, not only for theatre but to start making money out of this space. We need more events. We have this fantastic space here,” she says.
Pienaar-Vosloo supports many charities, but one really close to her heart is the South African Artists Benevolent Fund which looks out for older artists who can no longer find work and have no financial support system. Again, this is where her fundraising abilities are stretched to the limit since the Fund is donations based and receives no government support.
She does it though because arts, and theatre especially, is high on what she deems to be necessary in life: “Theatre is the most important social criticism, it is a reflection of what is happening in the world. You go to theatre to see the reality of war, love, peace, emotion and what absolutely inspires me is that people come up with new things every day. “It brings people together. It opens your heart to how people live and interact. It builds bridges.”