Mike van Graan

(19*-) Dramatist, director, cultural consultant and activist.

Also wrote some plays as Peter September, when submitting plays (e.g. Hostile Takeover) to the PANSA Festival of Reading of New Writing PANSA Festival of New Writing .

TO BE EDITED

Graduated from the University of Cape Town (UCT) having majored in English and Drama, since completed **.

Cultural activist

Director of the Bartle Arts Trust (BAT) 1995. Trained at UCT studied English & Drama with honours in play directing. Also director of CAP & later National Projects Officer of the Congress of SA Writers. Driving force behind National Arts Coalition (NAC). Mike van Graan is one of South Africa's leading playwrights, cultural activists and commentators. He currently serves as the Director of the African Arts Institute in Cape Town and heads the Secretariat of the Arterial Network, an informal network of individuals and organisations committed to developing the African creative sector. He has served in leadership capacities in various progressive cultural NGOs both during the apartheid era e.g. Director of the Community Arts Project, Projects Coordinator of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) and General Secretary of the National Arts Coalition, and after the country's first democratic elections in 1994 e.g. Director of the BATCentre and General Secretary of the Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA). During the Mandela Presidency, he was appointed as an Advisor to the first Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and participated in the formulation of new cultural policies by helping to draft the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage. He launched his consultancy - Article 27 Arts and Culture Consultants - in January 1996 to offer a variety of policy, administrative, training and event management services. With the decline in many institutions as the consequence of poor management and implementation of policy, he helped to found the Performing Arts Network of South Africa (PANSA) in 2001. He was elected General Secretary of PANSA and played this role for four years, helping to create the most effective post-apartheid arts lobby. He has done research into the creative industries for the Western Cape government, administered the Arts and Culture Trust and served as the regional representative of Business and Arts South Africa.

In 2006, he decided to concentrate on playwriting and producing, both to contribute towards post-apartheid theatre and to develop models of greater sustainability for independent theatre-makers in a hostile policy and funding environment.

The Arterial Network

Launched at a conference "Revitalising African Cultural Assets" in Senegal in March 2007, and Van Graan was asked to serve as the Secretariat to the Network, an informal association of individuals and organisations working to develop the African creative sector. He continues to work in this capacity and as a playwright.

Plays

Dinner Talk (1998); Green Man Flashing (2004); Hostile Takeover (2005, reworked as Just Business in 2012)); Brothers in Blood (2009).

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