South African independent self-organised art institutions, funding models and its effect on institutional programming

Abstract

This Masters project explores the notion of autonomy and the effect of external funders on self-organised art institutions. Institutional self-censorship and its resulting loss of autonomy are brought to the fore. Through textual sources and practice-based research, the limitations of current funding models are discussed with the intention of instigating experimentation on alternative funding and institutional models that may provide a greater degree of autonomy. The study establishes the South African art context through one-to-one interviews with a selection of founders of local self-organised art institutions, in order to establish the limitations of their respective funding models. The practical component is presented as a book to be published on the PAN!C website. The book includes five interviews with founders of self-organised institutions, two round-table discussions that question the notion of autonomy and an introductory text to the book.