UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the University of Johannesburg’s Faculty of Art Design & Architecture (FADA) bids farewell to Grace Meadows, its Performing Arts Manager.
Meadows first joined the UJ Arts team in 2011, after a successful freelance career as an arts educator and independent producer. During her five years as Performing Arts Manager, overseeing the Arts programme across UJ’s four campuses, she has excelled in creating both a broad-based arts experience for UJ’s 50 000 student complement and initiating a public-facing professional programme that continues to entice Johannesburg audiences.
For the past year, she has filled the position of Acting Head of Arts & Culture, and has made great strides in forging key partnerships with national arts organisations, peer institutions, corporate and private sponsors and international cultural agencies. During her tenure, UJ’s Arts &Culture’s output has increased five-fold, with a significantly increased and diversified audience base and a substantially heightened national profile.
With her bold and contemporary programmatic choices, Meadows has produced professional and student productions that have gone on to win numerous national and international awards. As an arts manager she has emerged as a trailblazing voice garnering respect from her contemporaries, and the creative and production teams with which she has collaborated.
Commenting on the creative authority bestowed on her by the institution, Meadows deems it a ‘privilege’, further citing that a ‘truly remarkable, dedicated and professional UJ Arts team’ lies at the heart of ambitious programming and enables ‘much-needed boundary pushing.’
Meadows has recently been selected into the first South African cohort aimed at increasing capacity in Higher Education Management and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Bath (UK). She has a MA Degree in Applied Arts and is a Drama for Life Scholar (Wits).
Vacancy announcement to be released in due course.
About UJ Arts & Culture
UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. A robust range of arts platforms are offered on all four UJ campuses for students, staff, alumni and the general public to experience and engage with emerging and established Pan-African and international artists drawn from the full spectrum of the arts.
In addition to UJ Arts & Culture, FADA (www.uj.ac.za/fada) offers programmes in eight creative disciplines, in Art, Design and Architecture, as well as playing home to the NRF SAR Chair in South African Art & Visual Culture, and the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre. The Faculty has a strong focus on sustainability and relevance, and engages actively with the dynamism, creativity and diversity of Johannesburg in imagining new approaches to art and design education. Equipped with state-of-the art, custom-built facilities, the Faculty is staffed by highly regarded academics, architects, artists and designers.