The document provides an overview and advice for students starting an arts program at Wits School of Arts in South Africa. It discusses that the field of creative arts is competitive and requires ambition, talent, and perseverance. It emphasizes that studying arts is about developing critical thinking skills through practice, reflection, and understanding different artistic and cultural perspectives. The document encourages students to make the most of their time in the program by engaging with their teachers and peers, using academic support resources, and exploring Johannesburg as a center for arts and culture.

1. Congratulations! You did it – you got into one of the most outstanding artistic/academic
programmes in South Africa – the Wits School of Arts. The field of creative arts is one of the
most competitive in our society. You’ve got to be ambitious to even try, talented too. But the
main thing you will have to learn is to persevere.
But that sounds serious! Learning is fun Studying is fun – but watch out! Some people think
that a creative career is easier than engineering or science. But to become a successful
artist, you have to learn a whole lot of skills – with your body, your mind and your memories
– you will go in search of the real you, because artistic expression is actually research into
the human condition.
Through art, we observe, reflect on, interrogate and hopefully understand more about what it
means to be human – how we make laws, how we remember our cultures, how we pass on
our knowledge to the next generation. John Cage, an outstanding composer, writer, painter,
and intellectual of the 20th century said: “art comes from a kind of experimental condition in
which one experiments with the living”.
The discipline of the arts is about practice, practice practice. Act and reflect, reflect and
understand, reflect and change what you thought was right, practice again. Practice doesn’t
mean doing the same things all the time, because as you practice you get to know yourself,
your abilities and your limitations. You may arrive thinking you’re the next Denzel
Washington, and leave as William Kentridge’sassistant. Anything is possible.
As an arts student, you will develop critical thinking skills. It’s not just saying, “I don’t like that
play or I don’t like that painting.” You have to say WHY. You will gain a broad understanding
of culture, with insight into societal and political issues. Nothing comes from nothing, so you
will learn who went before, and what they left behind.
The Bachelor’s Degree gives you academic and artistic training makes you versatile and
gives you various career options. Remember it’s really competitive, so learn as much as you
can about all aspects of the art that inspires you. Watch your teachers, they’re artists and
lecturers and some of them even have other jobs besides that, advising government or
writing for newspapers and industry publications, or making films. Many of our staff excel as
artists and as intellectuals.
In a country as complex as South Africa, all agencies are constantly on the lookout for new
ideas that will enhance our education system, our health system, our judicial system, and
every aspect of our rapidly changing environment. If you proceed to postgraduate studies,
you will be able to take advantage of our cross-disciplinary approaches that link visual arts with
music, or digital arts with drama and film. Being an arts student only starts with expressing yourself,
it’s also about what that means in the context of broader society, and how you can best participate
and contribute.
Your teachers are more than talking heads in the front of your class, they are artists in their
own right. Besides their teaching and marking obligations, they contribute to the further
growth of SA’s dynamic art scene and provide new insights into the domain’s cultural
knowledge, through their creative work and research activities. Take advice from Wole
Soyinka, the great Nigerian writer, dramatist and activist: “I believe that the best learning
process of any kind of craft is to look at the work of others.” Go and watch their work. Form
an opinion. Test it, by expressing it, and change it if you want to. It is through your teachers
you will better understand that theoretical knowledge is part of a creative act, and that the
creative act inspires innovative theoretical thinking.
So your journey starts now. Six basic rules:

2. 1. Come to all classes – it’s the only way to stay on top of this massive learning curve
between high school and tertiary. Stay in touch with your peers, so that if you do
have a situation where you have to miss a class, someone will fill you in with what
you missed.
2. We provide all new students with a whole series of support systems in this initial
phase of your university studies. And we are sure you will be able to cope, and to
succeed if, and only if, you engage with these from the start. Use the library. Make
reading and study groups your best friends.I trust that I don’t have to explain why…
3. Get support. Nobody makes it as an actor, filmmaker, painter or musician on their
own. Make friends with your fellow students. Get used to collaborating. If you’re
finding something difficult, speak to your lecturer, ask them to suggest other reading
or get your student representative to get you academic support. Be kind to yourself
and if your life’s got you on your back, get life support. It’s very important that you
use the opportunity of studying to also inform yourself about your needs and wants.
4. Be open: Accept that your ideas about the arts might still be limited – inform yourself,
experience more, make more work and reflect more. Develop your passion – focus
down on the practitioners who inspire you and learn more about them and their
creative journey. Nobody expects that you give up all your beliefs or convictions, but
we want you to truly and fully engage with differing artistic and theoretical positions
which inform the arts today – even if they contradict your upbringing or religion.
Because you have to be able to say why: developing critical thought means
convincing others of your position.
5. Practice on your peers. Try out your ideas, even the silly ones. Be brave. If you fail,
try again. Remember the African proverb: To get lost is to learn the way.You are not
alone.
6. Respect others – the staff trying to give you the best experience possible, your peers,
yourself. Respect the facilities and equipment you are sharing with other students –
remember, studying at university is a privilege. Don’t squander it.
Johannesburg will be your home for the next four years – a city of opportunities and
challenges. Others have walked this path before you, open up to them, ask them for their
map. It is an incredibly vibrant city and cultural hub for the whole continent, an inspiring,
busy place! Explore it! Safely.
Thanks to a joint effort from School and Faculty, we have been able to improve classrooms
step by step, and shall continue to do so. The beautifully designed courtyard, (created by
one of our staff members) with its plants in full bloom might be one of the places where you
will seek a bit of calm --- enjoy it, and leave it clean so that your colleagues can also enjoy
it.
We invite you to be ambitious. Believe in your dreams. Participate, contribute and do
everything you can to become an outstanding member of the creative, artistic and academic
community. It’s all yours darlings! Take a big bite of your life!