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PREPARING SOUTH AFRICA FOR THE WORLD |
The official 2010 Fine Art website (www.2010fineart.com) has been launched. The company as acquired from the Global Brands Group, FIFA's Master Licensee, a licence to produce and distribute fine art related to the World Cup. It is the first time in the history of the tournament that FIFA has granted a license of this nature. The project will be one of the largest international art collaborations in history. Project 2010 spoke to Rob Spaull, General Manager of 2010 Fine Art...  Why have you chosen this week for your launch? Because it marks the start of the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture, hosted for the first time right here in South Africa. We've also had the launch, in KwaZulu-Natal, of the Annual Heritage Arts Festival and National Heritage Day. The eyes of the world are turning to South Africa as never before. We must make every use of these global opportunities to promote African visual arts and Africa as a powerful cultural destination. What has the response been to the 2010 Fine Arts project? Fantastic. We are assembling an international collection by some of the world's leading contemporary artists that celebrates Africa and the World Cup. With five artists from each nation that qualifies to play in South Africa, we will have 160 original works from every corner of the globe. Add to that the exceptional pieces being assembled for the 2010 African Fine Art Collection and the fact that we will be exhibiting not only here in South Africa but in all 32 countries during 2010, and you start to get a sense of how big an opportunity this is to promote African art and Africa as a destination of choice. Can you tell us more about the website? We have been developing the site for a number of months now - working closely with our design team to create a truly user-friendly look and feel. The result is a simple yet powerful interface that allows visitors to see which countries have qualified and what art is available from each. As new teams qualify their art will be loaded and updated. We have also created a number of interactive links to our social networking sites, video resources and other recommended news and information portals about the World Cup and South Africa." Are you still bringing new artists on board? Yes, very much so. We are in the process of adding new artists to both the International and African Fine Art Collections and the new site has a specific section dedicated to inviting new artists to join the project. We are also starting to identify and appoint the exclusive gallery partners in the 32 countries where we will be exhibiting and this section also invites interested galleries to contact our team. What are your plans for the 2010 Final Draw? At this point we will have a display as part of media centre - and launching the Fine Arts in the week of the Final Draw. more interviews...
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