The only way to achieve the impossible, is to believe it’s possible. C.S. Lewis, Alice in Wonderland 17 SEPTEMBER 2015 1 WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF OUR SPONSORS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUED CONTRIBUTIONS. WWW.ELEMENTBRANDING.CO.ZA 2 www.letterb.co.za 3 Since its establishment in 2012 The Click Foundation has continued to evolve, expanding its reach to over 12,500 learners in 64 environments. ArtAngels has played a fundamental role in allowing us to achieve this growth and deliver on our vision of the use of technology in education, through teaching learners to read and communicate in English at an age-appropriate level. The Reading Eggs programme has proved to be a fun way of engaging learners, whilst also allowing them to feel comfortable with the use of technology. Through the money raised over the years we have bought, inter alia, 323 computers. This has enabled us to grow in current environments, saturate environments where possible and replace troublesome old hardware to maximise the programme’s effectiveness. From 2012 to 2014 the Grade 5 English Annual National Assessments (ANAs) in our three Mpumalanga partner schools improved 204% compared with the national improvement of 57%. This means that the rate of improvement in our Mpumalanga partner schools, after two years on the programme, is 260% above the national rate of improvement. This year we have introduced our own online evaluation tool that has been used to test all Grade 1’s and will be expanded across the Foundation phase over the next two years. We will also be launching our bespoke management system that will allow us to seamlessly report, and make data-driven and well-informed decisions. All the above has been achieved with a small team at Click Foundation and the facilitators in our environments. We will be increasing our capacity in the field by the end of the year, in line with our growth plans. Our intention for 2016 is to double our current numbers by saturating the current partners, working with our current partners in new environments and adding strategic new partners. 4 NUMBER OF LEARNERS GROWTH OF LEARNERS PER REGION SINCE INCEPTION 14,000 PREDICTED 2015 AUGUST 2015 12,857 7,493 2014 2,903 2013 865 2012 3 4 0 8 6 8 3 3 23 00 6 86 , , , , 202 9 45 526 2 4 2 1 JOBS NUMBER OF TEACHERS Y R 1 2 3 4 5 6-9 CREATED ENVIRONMENTS TRAINED ER S LEARNERS BY UR GRADE 53 64 183 N 5 AUCTION ITEMS What an idea. What a mad, crazy wonderful idea. C.S. Lewis, Alice in Wonderland 6 BONNIE WALTERS Sophiatown – The Dance had just Begun, 2007 Charcoal and pastel on paper 65 x 80 cm Estimated value: R24,000 – R28,000 Donated by the artist Bonnie Walters was born in Springs, matriculated in Bloemfontein and achieved a BA (English and Psychology) at Stellenbosch University. After careers in advertising, finance and property she acquired a BTech honours (cum laude) at Wits Tech, now University of Johannesburg, in 2001. After lecturing in drawing at Wits Tech, Bonnie became a full-time artist in 2006. She lives and works in Johannesburg and is currently on sabbatical from doing her Masters degree in Fine Arts. She successfully curates her own solo exhibitions and participates in joint exhibitions - including Jaco Sieberhagen - and GIBS Charity Auctions. Initially Bonnie’s work was informed by rich and conflicting childhood memories including her formative years in a mining town, family holidays in multi-cultural Schweizer Reneke and the small Karoo town of Laingsburg. Her works are ambivalent: they often deal with and express personal memories and inner longings, or they awaken in the viewers their own lived experiences. Bonnie’s work shows great skill and confidence that can only be achieved through a prolific work ethic and all-consuming commitment. Her art is held in private collections both in South Africa (including Ellerman House Contemporary) and internationally. 7 BAMBO SIBIYA Happy Times, 2015 Charcoal and water colour 92 x 160 cm (unframed) Estimated value: R19,000 – R22,000 Donated by the artist Bambo Sibiya completed a Design certificate at Benoni Technical College in 2005 and, together with a friend, opened a small graphic design business. In 2008 he was offered a full bursary to Artist Proof Studio. As a student Sibiya was encouraged to develop his personal content through cultural and art-historical research as well as by participating in social advocacy programmes. He began to etch poignant compositions of poverty in his local community. His subsequent themes, based loosely on the experience of his mother, led to an accomplished series concerning single mothers as heads of their households. Bambo lived with a culture of alcoholism, growing up amidst the breakdown of his own family structure. Many of his prints depict mothers as the most elevated figures in his compositions, conveying the message that despite hardship and unemployment, women still manage to find ways to feed their families, nurture and protect their children and keep their families in relative security. He has received a number of awards including the Gerald Sekoto Award for the most promising artist in the 2012 L’Atelier art competition and the Arts and Culture Trust Award 2012. 8 LIONEL SMIT Source #4, 2015 Digital print on archival paper, hand finished with indian ink 173 x 125 cm Edition 5 of 12 Estimated value: R41,000 – R47,000 Donated by the artist Lionel Smit was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1982. He started developing and exhibiting straight after art school at Pro Arte Alphen Park. Smit is best known for his contemporary portraiture executed through monumental canvasses and sculptures. Smit is considered one of South Africa’s youngest investment artists. He exhibits locally and abroad and is currently showing at art fairs in Amsterdam, Germany, India, Miami, Monaco, London and Hong Kong. Over the past ten years he has established a substantial international following with collectors ranging from the Standard Chartered Bank to Laurence Graff Art Collection at Delaire Graff Estate. One of Smit’s paintings has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, where it was chosen as the ‘face’ of the BP Portrait Award 2013. He was recently honoured with a Ministerial Award from the Department of Culture for Visual Art and a highlight of his career has been the publication of one of his paintings on the cover of Christie’s Auction Catalogue. 9 DIANE VICTOR Marakana - System Devolution , 2014 Etching, digital print and ash 56 x 67 cm (unframed) Artist proof of edition of 20 Estimated value: R7,500 – R10,000 Donated by the artist Diane Victor received her BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a major in Printmaking. In addition to graduating with distinction and winning various awards, Victor also became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Volkskas Atelier Award in 1988. Since 1990, Victor has been a part-time lecturer, teaching drawing and printmaking, at various South African institutions. Victor prefers imagery to words and the strength of her visual eloquence hits one in the gut and takes one’s breath away. Her work examines the underbelly of society and our lives with an extraordinary intensity and yet the marks that she makes are exquisitely beautiful. Diane Victor has won numerous awards and has exhibited widely within South Africa and overseas including at the 2015 South African Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale. Her work is in leading South African corporate, state and private collections as well as in international collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 10 LIBERTY BATTSON 50% of your happiness is determined by day-to-day behavior and even more so if you sit upright and don’t slouch, 2015 2K automotive paint on canvas 70 x 120 cm 24.97% Of this one is brushstroke, 2015 2K automotive paint on canvas 70 x 70 cm Estimated value: R24,000 – R27,500 Donated by the artist Liberty Battson was born and raised in Benoni, South Africa. She matriculated from St. Dunstan’s College in 2009 and graduated with a BA Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria in 2013. Battson has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Most recently, she was named the winner of the ABSA L’Atelier Awards 2014 which saw her complete a 6 month residency in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts this year. Her artworks feature in the Telkom, Sasol and Ellerman House art collections. “I love stripes,” she enthuses. “I love Modernism and abstraction… It’s searching for the truth. Stats are presented as a form of the truth, but I am trying to play with the boundaries. This work is part of a series called Sidesplitting, so funny that it makes you get a pain in your side. I wanted to created art that represented joy - looking inward I recognised my optimism and passion and I wanted to share it.” 11 ANGUS TAYLOR Composite Portrait, Researched (III), 2015 Belfast granite, stainless steel and solidified with concrete Edition 6 of 12 Estimated value: R155,000 – R176,000 Donated by the artist Angus Taylor (born 1970) is known in South Africa and abroad for his powerful, often large, works of sculpture, characterised by outstanding craftsmanship. Taylor is a graduate of the University of Pretoria which bestowed an Alumni Laureate on him in 2005. In 1997, he founded his own undertaking, Dionysus Sculpture Works, where he casts his own and other sculptors work, and nurtures the talent of young and developing artists.