Doreen Nteta, the founding Chief Executive of the National Arts Council of South Africa, who also served on the founding board of IFACCA and as Deputy Chair, passed away earlier this month.

Mrs Nteta was a member of the panel that spoke at the first World Summit on Arts and Culture in Ottawa in December 2000 in favour of creating an international network of arts funding agencies, which was to become IFACCA. She then hosted the first ever meeting of the board of IFACCA at the offices of the NAC in Johannesburg in 2001. 

As well as her role in the foundation of IFACCA, Ms Nteta was a former Curator and Director of the National Museum and Art Gallery of Botswana, and was responsible for the setting up of all the curatorial departments and the establishment of the Mobile Museum Service, the first in Africa.  She was involved in museum development work, namely through the Commonwealth Association of Museums, and was a member of an arts organisation that was in the process of setting up the Arts Institute for Botswana. Ms Nteta’s research interests were in arts and cultural education policies and projects as well as social research, and her work reflected her passion in those fields.  She was a founding member of the Botswana Society, and editor for its semi-scientific journal, entitled "Botswana Notes and Records".

A former colleague, Andre Le Roux, pays tribute to Doreen Nteta in this Facebook post. 

https://www.facebook.com/nacsouthafrica/posts/737663742971797

https://www.facebook.com/nacsouthafrica/posts/737663742971797