Judging panel for ImpACT Awards 2012 announced

The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Awards are selected by the ACT Board of Trustees. Luminaries in Theatre, Music, Visual Art and Literature will be honoured for their significant contributions during their lifetimes.
The recipients of the ImpACT Awards for Young Professionals are selected by an independent panel of judges. Awards in Visual Art, Theatre, Music & Singing and Design are awarded to young professional artists who have made an impact during the first three years of their professional careers. They will also be announced at the Awards ceremony in November.

High calibre of finalists

The 2012 panel of judges includes the director of Pink Room Productions, Brenda Devar-Sakellarides; the conductor, music director and instrumentalist, George ka Mxadana; the business manager of Artist Proof Studio, Janet Watts; the theatre director, poet and teacher, Kga-fela oa Magogodi; and founding member and artistic director of The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative, PJ Sabbagha.

"It was a great privilege to sit on the ImpACT judging panel. It is never easy to pick a winner. It is certainly true to say that the calibre of the ImpACT finalists shows that we are incredibly well served by brave, capable, visionary young artists and thinkers who are claiming their space, finding their voice and contributing, at a high level of excellence, to the prospering of our creative sector," says Devar-Sakellarides, ACT Ambassador and spokesperson of the panel of judges.

"It is a significant achievement to receive an affirmation of this nature within the first three years of professional life. It holds both a responsibility and an impetus to continue making a difference and making an impact. If our ImpACT winners are the yardstick, then our future is in very safe creative hands. As a sector we must make sure that we actively engage with these energetic shape shifters," she concludes.