Nicolette du Plessis

Nicky is an independent arts consultant
specializing in the design and management of cultural development projects, project evaluation and training. Clients have included the Nordic Council of Ministers, Sida, Norad and Hivos, for whom she has worked throughout Africa; various tertiary education institutions in South Africa and Europe as guest faculty and external examiner;
and the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority,
with whom she has devised development programmes in cultural tourism.

du Plessis has also worked with Business and Arts South Africa, contributing to building relationships between arts practitioners and the business community.  She co-edited The South African Handbook on Arts and Culture with Mike van Graan in 1998; served as the National Deputy Chair of the Performing Arts Network of South Africa, is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the South African National Arts Council, and the Chair of Art Moves Africa, the only mobility fund for African artists travelling within Africa.  She won the Arts Administrator of the Year Award from the Arts and Culture Trust in 2005.

Cultural Radius CC (established 1998) frequently co-ordinates consortiums or establishes partnerships with other professionals and like-minded organizations in order to undertake specific contracts.  The ethos of the company is based on commitments to sustainable development; the dignified promotion of the arts based on principles of human rights and an unshakeable belief in the transformative power of the creative spirit – in art, in education, in business and in development. 

Full CV in European Union format available on request.

Professional Affiliations

President of Art Moves Africa (international mobility fund for African artists), 2007 – 2011
www.artmovesafrica.org

Ministerial appointee to the Board of National Arts Council of South Africa 2004/4 and re-appointed 2008 – 2010, and subsequently elected to the Executive Committee and the Policy and Research Committee.
www.nac.org.za

Fellow of the Pirogue Collective (an arts and development organisation connected to the Goree Institute, Senegal) from 2010
www.piroguecollective.org

2010 Nominator for the Prix Pictet Photographic Prize
www.prixpictet.com

National Deputy Chairperson of the Performing Arts Network of South Africa, (PANSA), December 2002 -2006;  paid up member of the network to date.
www.pansa.org.za

Member of International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) from 2002. 
www.incd.net

Paid up business member of Business and Arts South Africa
www.basa.co.za

Conferences and Colloquiums

du Plessis has attended and given papers at various conferences nationally and internationally including:

• 2010: Art and Social Justice, South Africa – presented on a panel discussion on the arts and social development
• 2009:  The Second Informal Meeting of the Young Arab Theatre Fund (YATF), Egypt – gave the opening address and presented a seminar on partnerships towards sustainable development.
• 2009: World Summit on Arts and Culture, South Africa 2009 – presented findings of research on Arts Funding in Africa
• 2009: Euro-African Culture Co-Operation Campus, Mozambique – presented a paper on arts marketing and social media 2007:  Conference on African Cultural Sector Development, Senegal – moderated a session on Cultural Industries and presented a paper on Arts Management Education
• 2009:  Arts Management – the State of the Field professional seminar at HUMAK University, Finland in April 2009 – contributed to a publication published by the University.
• 2009: International Colloquium: Culture and Creativity as Vectors of Development, Belgium,
• 2004: The International Network for Cultural Diversity Conference (INCD) – co-chaired a plenary session.
• 2003: PANSA/BASA Arts Marketing Conference, South Africa –  presented a paper on audience statistics in the arts
  

Publications

A listing of all evaluation reports is provided under Services – Evaluations.

Additional publications and writings not connected to conferences include:

2010: Interpreting Msinsi: Culture, Tourism and Story-telling in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. 
Co-authored with Emma Durden

Performing Heritage: Research, practice and development in museum theatre and live interpretation
Edited by Anthony Jackson and Jenny Kidd
Manchester University Press, 2010

2005:   Performance script: An African Cosmology
Commissioned for the opening ceremony of the Unesco World Heritage Council meeting in Durban

2004:  Research paper on Cultural Management (unpublished)
Commissioned by the University of Fort Hare, for the Faculty of African and Democracy Studies, National Heritage and Cultural Studies Centre.

2003:  Performance script: Abantu Babuyela Emakhaya (unpublished)
Commissioned by the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park Authority

2003:  Play script: Why the Cheetah has Tears on Her Cheeks (unpublished)
Commissioned by the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park Authority

1998:  A Handbook of Arts and Culture in South Africa
Co-edited with Mike van Graan
The first post-apartheid 500 page reference resource directory, published by Article 27.

1997:  Article: Carl Roberts – sculptor
VUKA Magazine

1993:  Article: Dance in Durban
Art, Design and Architecture Magazine

Awards

2004:  Finalist – Arts and Culture Trust Arts and Culture Administrator of the Year Award

2005:  Winner – Arts and Culture Trust Arts and Culture Administrator of the Year Award
www.act.org.za