The walls of the BAT Centre are beautiful. Murals hug each corner and colours throb against the grey docks around Durban's small craft harbour. In fact, the only way you would be able to find something more vibrant around here would be to go inside.
"We're fighting for the right of the artist," says publicity officer, Xolani Sithole, as he leads me through the buzzing maze of corridors.
"We're an arts and culture centre where people are given the opportunity to expand their academic knowledge."
The BAT Centre was started in 1995 with the mission to celebrate the arts and culture of Durban by promoting local talent and skills as well as acting as a community centre.
"We're an NGO, so we rely on funding, but it's tough to support artists without much income," Sithole says, explaining how the income from renting out their seminar rooms, halls and studios is not enough to cover them.
"We essentially take on the responsibility of an academic institution for people who can't pay lots of money for tertiary education. We set up learnerships for students to learn music and visual art so they can develop their own skills and businesses."
Anyone can sign up at the beginning of the year to be eligible for one of the 25 to 30 places in each course. "We provide all the equipment and materials and they can use the BAT centre to sell or exhibit their work afterwards," says Sithole.
"There is coaching from existing artists and facilitators and sometimes artists get approached for project commissions."
There are various galleries studded around the centre, including a unique graffiti gallery, the executive Bayside Gallery and the Menzi Mchunu or Democratic Gallery, where anyone from previously disadvantaged artists to young pupils can be selected to show their work. There is also a BAT shop where they can sell their art alongside that of the spectacular craftwork by local women.
"We're in a prime tourist spot right here by the sea," says Sithole as a couple quietly peruses through the shop in front of him. "It means there's quick exposure because this centre is in a convenient place for people."
The centre also offers short courses, workshops and seminars on a variety of topics. It houses the Script Writing Institution for entry level writers as well as Straight Success, a free training programme for different skills with accredited qualifications.
But if you just want entertainment you can find it here too. The BAT Centre offers a restaurant, live jazz sessions on Fridays and Sundays, poetry gatherings, drumming circles as well as Life Check events once a month for people from all over the city to try break-dancing, turn- tabling and rapping.
"But we're not only stuck at the centre," says Sithole. "We do lots of outreach as part of some of the classes."
The BAT Centre tries to bring cultural skills to township schools and correctional facilities by offering their services formally or through the ventures of their students. "People trained in art and music must recognise areas in the community that need help," says Sithole.
And one of the most visual ways they are doing that is through the painting of murals around the city. The centre uses the skills of their artists to sign their own signature on the city by giving it life through colour. And if their own rainbowed walls are anything to go by, they're the best ones for the job.
- For info on the BAT Centre and its events see BAT Centre