Public Engagement with Research Award 2024

Prof Kim Berman, a Professor in the Visual Art Department at the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, has undertaken important and sustained research which has not only reached marginalised communities but also afforded people opportunities to attain livelihoods within the visual arts.

She affects a profound synthesis between her research in her capacity as a Professor of Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg, where she has been employed since 1994, and the various initiatives that she has set up over the years that have – quite literally – transformed people’s lives. She holds a PhD in Art and Cultural Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. Executive Director and co-founder of Artist Proof Studio in 1991, Prof Berman created a forum for young people from difficult circumstances to receive training as professional artists. The Studio has trained well over 400 students as professional artists. Prof Berman also founded Phumani Paper, a papermaking initiative which has included 21 poverty alleviation projects in seven provinces in South Africa, creating over 220 jobs for rural women.

Her work goes back to the mid-90s when she developed the National Paper Prayers and HIV/AIDS Awareness campaign that led to thousands of people being trained in HIV/AIDS awareness. Her book, Finding Voice: A visual approach to engaging change (2017) values the notion of voice as key to agency and the responsibility to act. She believes that the arts are a powerful medium to challenge injustice. Her role as an educator embeds the active promotion of creativity, reflexivity, engagement and imagination.

In 2011, Prof Berman collaborated on community enagement initiatives with her students in HaMakuya in Limpopo, an initiative that involved support for 20 families and four schools through Homestays, workshops, and the making of murals. Recent participatory community engagements with students presently include collaborative work with the street reclaimers in the Bekezela community in Newtown. During the COVID-19 Lockdown, she cofounded The Lockdown Collection, an artist-led project that has supported hundreds of vulnerable artists and art students. She is committed to engaging the arts for social change through her activism and teaching, and she has also lectured and exhibited widely in South Africa and internationally.

Since 2016, her research outputs include 14 peer-reviewed articles, four books and 18 book chapters. She has successfully supervised numerous postgraduate students to completion, many of whom proceeded to run projects (aimed at developing livelihoods) or play dynamic roles in arts education.