Arthur Nkuna, who completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Rhodes University last year, has successfully been chosen as a candidate for the Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) Internship Programme - one of the most coveted internship programmes in South Africa.
Nkuna has been enthusiastically involved with the International Library of African Music (ILAM) since 2008 – his first year at Rhodes, and is committed to the project of digitising the institution's Indigenous African music collections. This experience stood him in good stead when it came to applying for the internship at BASA. The interns are selected on the basis of their education, experience, and enthusiasm for the arts.
The position runs from January to December each year and has been instrumental in transferring the skills required for success in the sector of arts administration.
After a long relationship with BASA, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) has agreed to sponsor BASA's Internship Programme, a commitment which illustrates RMB's firm belief in, and commitment to, the business of the arts.
Their investment gives BASA greater capacity to facilitate skills training and develop further opportunities for young art administrators to empower themselves within their chosen field.
BASA places great emphasis not only on skills transfer but also on sustainability within the arts and culture sector, with these two principles chiefly informing the organisation's internal structure. The fruits of this policy can be seen in the increasingly successful internship programme. As Germaine Gamiet, Marketing and Operations Manager at BASA, says; "BASA Interns are afforded a year-long opportunity to network, focus their career objectives, and to ground their understanding of both the objectives and operational demands in business and the arts. We are very pleased to welcome Arthur to the team and look forward to seeing how he grows during the year.”
The internship programme presents the incumbent with a number of opportunities which are not otherwise easily accessible to trainee art administrators. Not only do they have the chance to access mentorship and to practice administrative skills in training situations, they are also given the opportunity to drive significant projects, gaining valuable real life experience. Over the course of the year an intern will be involved in large-scale events and will have exposure to both the IT management and marketing and communications arenas.
"I am excited about the opportunity being an intern at Business and Arts South Africa presents. As much as I love business, I love the arts as well. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to gain experience and knowledge about how the Arts and Business work together. I know this opportunity will positively inform my future career endeavours,” says Nkuna.