Developing a methodology for understanding artistic mentorship in apartheid South Africa: the case of the Polly Street Art Centre
Date
2018
Authors
Mdanda, Sipho
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Abstract
When the Nationalist Party government came into power in 1948, they set about establishing
Afrikaner hegemony and destroying all institutions associated with British Imperialism. With the
post-war industrial boom, increasing numbers of Africans moved from South Africa’s rural areas to
work in urban cities like Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban, to mention but a few. To accommodate
the ever-increasing number of black inhabitants, townships were built, but these lacked suitable
recreational facilities, and hence the public halls were often used. One of these was the Polly Street
Recreational Centre in downtown Johannesburg. This study investigates the role played by
mentorship as a teaching methodology in art education at the Polly Street Art Centre from 1952 to
1965, the period during which black urban artists emerged. It explores the following key questions:
• What was the role of mentorship in art education for the black artists at Polly Street Art
Centre?
• To what extent might this mentorship be understood as teaching and learning methodology
during this period?
• Why was this teaching methodology at Polly Street Art Centre never properly engaged in
academic research by mainly white scholars?
• To what extent is Cecil Skotnes hero-worshipped by white scholars as the sole crusader in
the success of Polly Street Art Centre?
Through interrogation of available literature, as well as pre-existing and my own interviews with
people closely associated with Polly Street Art Centre, I argue that mentorship as a teaching
methodology has been ignored in favour of an understanding that reinforces the apparently formal
academic teaching of art education.
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, 2018
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Citation
Mdanda, Sydney Derrick Sipho (2018) Developing a methodology for understanding artistic mentorship in apartheid South Africa:the case of the Polly Art Centre, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/28524>