Celebrate anniversary of black
Most professionals, artists, academics and students can tell you about the isolation of working within institutions of power. They talk about the deep psychological discomfort, the dissonance and the harsh silencing of the inner true self. This makes a case for safe spaces.
The Federated Union of Black Artists (Fuba) is one such space. It was cofounded in 1978 by artists, writers and musicians in Johannesburg as a learning centre and to support black artists regarding ownership and distribution of their works to benefit economically from their art. Fuba helped to boost the careers of black artists within the restrictions of apartheid.
Fuba became a transgressive and disruptive safe space for black artists — a space beyond just the physical realm, best articulated in the Visual Arts Network of South Africa’s 2016 Best Practice Guide as “the constitution of some longerterm entity that produces projects, exhibitions, workshops and other performance (as opposed to the fixed-term nature of a festival)”.
Fuba did not exist in isolation. Many other art institutions, projects and centres were bedrocks for black critical thought in the arts. One such institution, the White Studio, was an art school in Sophiatown, established in 1944 by John Koenakeefe Mohl, who later became a teacher, mentor and adviser to artist Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi.
The art school was specifically founded to unearth, encourage and train African talent, particularly within the medium of painting.