Cape Town’s iconic and much-loved Baxter Theatre has received a boost with a five-year sponsorship from the Pam Golding Property group, as part of the company’s corporate social investment programme – the Heart of Gold Trust.
Through the Heart of Gold Trust, the Pam Golding Property Group has embarked on a number of initiatives in support of worthy community projects, as part of recently launched ‘Live Remarkable’ TV and digital marketing and advertising campaign. The Heart of Gold programme incorporates all the many and varied CSI initiatives across its more than 2 000 individual agents and staff and through its office network of 300 offices in South Africa and 10 other African countries.
Says Dr Andrew Golding, chief executive of the Pam Golding Property group: “The past two years have given us pause for reflection amid extremely challenging times, during which the pandemic and lockdown have had a devastating impact on South Africa’s and Africa’s economy, many individual businesses and citizens’ livelihoods.
“As part of a series of Group initiatives, in this our 46th year of operation, we felt it appropriate firstly, to honour the legacy of our late founder and life president, Pam Golding, by acknowledging her love of the arts. We are delighted therefore, to have concluded a five-year agreement pledging our support for the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, which will see the Main 684-seater theatre renamed, The Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter .
“In addition to the sponsorship, this agreement also includes partnering and assisting The Baxter with as many of their initiatives as possible, incorporating for example, their development initiatives and supporting the Baxter Coffee Angels fundraising campaign, where we will be encouraging staff, agents and clients to support their ‘Buy The Baxter a cup of coffee every month’ for just R30.”
Baxter CEO and artistic director Lara Foot explains: “There is a serendipity between the relationship and partnership of The Baxter and Pam Golding Properties. Pam Golding Properties is in the business of marketing homes in the Western Cape, the rest of South Africa and globally, and The Baxter is in the business of providing a home for artists and audiences of Cape Town and the surrounding areas.
Foot continues: “Together we will build an even more beautiful ‘home’, the Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter, which will house all our artists and their dreams. We will strive towards building a better future through the arts – one with an enriching and deepening value of humanity, of convivial discourse and which values a safe space for the arts to thrive. Welcome to The Pam Golding Theatre, at The Baxter.”
The Baxter Theatre Centre came into being in 1997, as the result of a bequest from the late Dr W Duncan Baxter who bequeathed an amount of money to the University of Cape Town for the purpose of establishing a theatre which would, in his words, “develop and cultivate the arts in Cape Town and the adjacent districts”. During the apartheid era, and leveraging its strong relationship with UCT, the theatre was able to present multiracial, progressive work at a time when all other non-racial interactivity was banned or censored.
Over the years this vibrant award-winning multicultural theatre hub has continued to provide a stage for all types of professional entertainment which include drama, music dance, comedy, opera and intimate theatre, hosting the best of South African performing arts and reflecting the cultures of all the people of South Africa while developing an interactive relationship with local and university communities. Even through the difficult years of racial segregation its doors remained open to everyone and it thrived, drawing on indigenous talent and creating a uniquely South African theatre tradition.
Located at the foot of UCT in the Southern Suburbs, The Baxter includes a world-class theatre, concert hall, studio, as well as its intimate Masambe and Flipside theatres, garden, rehearsal rooms, offices, a restaurant and bars and an impressive spacious foyer.
The launch of the Pam Golding Theatre at The Baxter will be celebrated with a special performance of comedic royalty, Marc Lottering, with his latest show, ‘Uncle Marc’, which runs from 11-28 May 2022.
For further information contact Pam Golding Properties via headoffice@pamgolding.co.za or the Baxter Theatre via Fahiem Stellenboom at fahiem.stellenboom@uct.ac.za.