The recently held New Breed Art mentorship session, presented by Phashoane Henney Attorneys, was hugely successful, with our expert mentors inspiring local artists to aspire to develop a thriving art career and be competition-ready.

Mentorship is a very important focus of the New Breed Art offering this year, which includes the New Breed Art Webinar Series featuring established, leading South African artists who we will be in conversation with. This is all in addition to and in run-up to the 2022 New Breed Art Competition, the sixth year that this unique art competition will be held.

The mentorship session on 21 May in Oliewenhuis Art Museum's reservoir was presented by leading artists of the Free State Art Collective (competition partner) who have also all been former New Breed Art Competition winners and/or finalists. Here local artists had the valuable opportunity to receive personal guidance, mentorship and inspiration from some of our most talented local artists, so as to improve the application of their skills and help them be competition-ready. 

The mentors (all members of the Free State Art Collective) on the day specialise in a variety of mediums, allowing for all present to be exposed to different areas of speciality. They were: 

• Baitumetse Moloabi, 2021 New Breed Art Competition’s overall winner 
• Neo Theku, 2019’s New Breed Art Competition’s overall winner 
• Kay Fourie, 2019’s New Breed Art Competition runner-up 
• Miné Kleynhans, 2019 New Breed Art Competition Merit Award winner 
• Xola Sello, 2018 New Breed Art Competition Merit Award winner 
• Bongani Tshabalala, 2019 New Breed Art Competition Public Choice Award winner 
• Nandipha Jantjies, 2021 New Breed Art Competition finalist 
• Lesego Motsiri, 2021 New Breed Art Competition finalist 

“One of the most meaningful ways to support art - which we do so passionately - is through mentoring up-and-coming artists and nurturing their aspirations. We are confident that the talented local artists who attended this session, have gained much inspiration and invaluable input from our accomplished artists, who have already gone through the competition process, grown and developed much as artists since, and are in fact now building thriving art careers. Growing a successful career in the arts includes embracing development opportunities and entering art competitions, and we look forward to receiving their entries,” says Magdel Louw, Competition Coordinator and Marketing Manager at Phatshoane Henney Attorneys.