Surprise! We just have 29 working days left of the year.

Surprise! We just have 29 working days left of the year.
By Elroy Fillis-Bell, Senior Manager Operations and Administrations

While we still have two very productive months ahead of us with a great deal still to deliver, the sudden installation of Christmas decorations in retail stores has necessitated a preemptive reflection of 2022.  My immediate takeaway for the Javett-UP is how different our organisation looks from 18 months ago. If you’ve been our friend for a while, you will have been on this journey with us.

You will have noticed our new Javett-UP brand identity as we’ve fully embraced the Pan-African iconography imbedded in our building. We’ve seen a great increase in daily foot traffic and audience numbers at events as our student community has returned and as we’ve built on our experience to deliver quality curatorial, educational, and arts-development programming. We’re focusing on visitor experience, using research to reposition how our team positions our activities. In this post-Covid world, we’ve taken the opportunity to pilot various programmes and activations by embracing our role as an experimental platform for artistic expression. We’ve also seen our partnerships become more varied and considered - we continue to work with organisations in the arts, culture, heritage, education and tourism sectors, although as a transdisciplinary platform it behooves us to really think beyond these disciplines if we are to truly re-imagine our futures.

These myriad movements visible to our publics are just the effervescence of the foundation-shifting work our team have put in under the surface. Part of this journey has been centering sustainability into our work at the Javett-UP. This means a considered understanding of our activities’ impact and a greater emphasis on the monitoring and evaluation of our programmes. More broadly, we’ve had to deeply consider organizational sustainability as it pertains to our capacity and financial health. As a Non-Profit Trust that receives limited funding from our founders, the Javett-UP team works hard to find partners of shared value to assist with both the in-kind and financial needs of the organisation. In addition to this, we have done considerable work around the income generating capacity linked to our programmes and available resources. This need to reimagine what an arts organisation’s business model can be, has been stressful, but has also stimulated exceptional innovation from our team. We’ve had to balance our mandate to be an accessible education centre with our need to generate revenue.

We’ve subsequently been successful in re-positioning the Javett-UP as a premier location for an art-centric venue hire experience, having hosted a variety of incredible events over this last year. Some of these included book launches, gala dinners, music video shoots, photoshoots, the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) Annual Awards, National Day Celebrations and conferences for numerous embassies, Africa Evidence Network Conference, as well as the launch of important institutions such as the African Centre for the Study of the US and the Centre for the Future of Work, with the Centre for Asian Studies launching at the end of this month. We’ve become inventive in crafting non-conventional end-of-year corporate events, such as our Art and Wine experiences in partnership with Aslina Wines and Magna Carta Wines. We’ll also be launching a Christmas Sale from our Javett-UP store as we’ve recently expanded our merchandise offerings – be sure to look out for that in the coming weeks.

The Javett-UP will continue to grow in success through the support of our friends and patrons. Tell your family and friends about your experience at one of our events or exhibitions and remember to think of us when you’re looking for an interesting thing to do with your company or looking for an exciting venue. We’ll be open over the holidays too (with the exception of one or two days around Christmas and New Year), so visit us when you’ve got some leisure time at the end of the year.

We’ve come a long way and with your continued engagement the Javett-UP will grow from strength to strength as the heart of art in Tshwane.