This past week's reading discussed cultural economic theory and government funding of the creative and cultural arts industry, and this portion of the text reminded me of a large chunk of my time in South Africa this past summer.
I interned at the Social History Centre, an institution that is part of the Iziko Museum complex, right in the heart of Cape Town for the month of July. Unbeknownst to myself and the four other people on the study abroad program, there is a good amount of tension between South African museums and the federal government right now, and it all relates back to funding. Politicians recently decided that every museum needs to submit an estimate of what the institution is worth, meaning they will need to valuate each object in their collections as well as any office furniture, supplies, computers, etc., in order to receive federal funding. Not only is this an extremely complicated and time-consuming process, but placing a monetary value on cultural object (and culture itself) is widely seen as unethical in the museum world.
The excerpt that we read mentions that government funding is essentially dependent on politicians' opinion of how important arts and culture is at that time, and it's clear that the South African government does not view museums and their contents to be of particular importance right now. Though in the past museums in the country only served elite audiences, the efforts to break down this idea in post-apartheid South Africa and reach out to local communities has been halted in order to satisfy these new government requirements and to get back the funding they need.
I interned at the Social History Centre, an institution that is part of the Iziko Museum complex, right in the heart of Cape Town for the month of July. Unbeknownst to myself and the four other people on the study abroad program, there is a good amount of tension between South African museums and the federal government right now, and it all relates back to funding. Politicians recently decided that every museum needs to submit an estimate of what the institution is worth, meaning they will need to valuate each object in their collections as well as any office furniture, supplies, computers, etc., in order to receive federal funding. Not only is this an extremely complicated and time-consuming process, but placing a monetary value on cultural object (and culture itself) is widely seen as unethical in the museum world.
The excerpt that we read mentions that government funding is essentially dependent on politicians' opinion of how important arts and culture is at that time, and it's clear that the South African government does not view museums and their contents to be of particular importance right now. Though in the past museums in the country only served elite audiences, the efforts to break down this idea in post-apartheid South Africa and reach out to local communities has been halted in order to satisfy these new government requirements and to get back the funding they need.
Hello Olivia! Wow I heard about this from Campbell. This is so interesting--thank you for sharing! Do you know of any good articles or resources that are talking about this issue? I would really like to know more about how the institutions are handling this situation (my initial google searches were failures).
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI, too, wasn't able to find any news articles that talk about GRAP 103 (name of the now enforced accounting principle in question), but here's a few official documents that explain exactly what GRAP 103 consists of and how Iziko in particular is handling it.
http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/za/Documents/audit/ZA_GRAP-WhatYouNeedToKnow_17042014.pdf
- Page 131-3 does a great job describing what the requirements of GRAP 103 are
http://www.iziko.org.za/PDF/Iziko%202015%20AR%20low%20resolution%20spreads.pdf
- Pages 25 and 71 talk briefly about the difficulties Iziko has had in implementing GRAP, 55 mentions the changes in responsibilities staff now has, 85 outlines what Iziko will need to valuate and the progress they have made.
http://www.iziko.org.za/PDF/tender/Tenderjan/2-Tender%20Brief%20-%20GRAP%20103.pdf
- This is Iziko's proposal for assistance to implement GRAP 103 at their institutions. It talks about how implementation has been difficult due to the lack of guidance, their limited financial resources and staff, and estimated total stock.
Hope this helps!