William
Lottering

William Lottering was born in Kimberley, South Africa and grew up in Johannesburg. After graduating from President High School, he spent 1974 in the military, where he was trained to be a medic. As descendants from Dutch, German and French families, the Lottering family spoke Afrikaans.  William's father, who grew up in Rhodesia (currently Zimbabwe), spoke English as a teenager and trained both his sons to be fluent in English. Both parents were business owners.

Because his high school did not offer any art courses, Willi's parents paid for his extra-curricular lessons in art and drama. Learning to paint and act outside of high school turned out to be an advantage; one of his art instructors was an exchange artist from Switzerland, Alice van Arckel and his drama (elocution) teacher was the famous stage and film actor Miems de Bruyn. Another direct influence was the artist Nico Van Rensburg, who later became the Dean of the Johannesburg College of Art and Design. As a teenager, Lottering participated in many art exhibitions and drama events every year. Young William also drew a cartoons for the monthly youth magazine Patrys.

in 1975, William enrolled in the University of Pretoria Fine Arts program and graduated four years later with a BA FA. In 1979, he further graduated with a teaching qualification.  As a university student William was invited by Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, a high profile South African painter, to join her installation committee at the South African Association of the Arts. They installed art exhibitions every two weeks and as a team member, Will acquired valuable hands-on experience in jurying and gallery installation procedures; knowledge from which the artist benefitted throughout his long career.  As a student, William also met the drama director Francois Swart, whose intellectual influence and approach to drama would be deeply ingrained in his psyche. Together with his friend Johan Badenhorst, Will spent countless hours in the Provincial Arts Council of Transvaal painting and props workshops (for drama and opera) to learn about drama on the technical side. (Johan Badenhorst later became a well-known set designer in South Africa). William started doing voice dubbing for TV series.

Although Lottering started teaching night-time life drawing classes at the Pretoria Technikon (now Tshwane University) as a student, his first full-time job was in 1980 at the Pretoria Art, Ballet and Music School as a sculpture instructor. After two years, he was appointed by his former Fine Arts department head, professor Nico Roos, as a full-time lecturer on the University of Pretoria Fine Arts Faculty. Here he was mentored by Mike Edwards the sculptor professor, art history professor Alex Duffey, and the painter Ernst de Jong. Another voice was one of the most recognized avant-garde painters in South Africa, Christo Coetzee.

As an intellectual influence, Lottering juried art shows and co-organized prominent national art competitions in South Africa, such as the Volkskas Atelier Exhibition and the New Signatures Exhibition (both still in place since 1977). This means that currently, William Lottering has curated and created art exhibitions for over five decades! 

In 1984, William Lottering joined the broadcasting world as radio announcer and producer at the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Suid-Afrika, where he produced art programmes, wrote scripts, read news, conducted interviews, did voice work for TV and advertising, created radio documentaries and directed over 200 radio dramas. Radio Suid-Afrika was a national broadcaster.  This buzzing world moulded the young artist into what he called a 'hands-on intellectual'. He was an art critic for INSIG, a South African news magazine, as well as on Afrikaans radio and a regular presenter at TV4.  Will explained his years in broadcasting as 'probably the most exciting and influential time of my career'. Apart from  countless radio scripts, Lottering has written eight plays over the years.

In the1980's William Lottering went on annual expeditions to Namibia. These  research and information adventures were organized by Dr. Piet Muller, head editor of the newspaper Beeld (and later of the Sunday national, Rapport). Usually there were a group of poets, painters, writers and scientists on these trips to the desert; the experiences had an enormous influence on Lottering's early works, which were often abstracted depictions of the desert. ('The Landscape is a Document')

In 1991, William Lottering and his family moved to Canada to settle in the town of Aurora in York Region, Ontario, where he resumed his role as educator. Having a rich background in both art and drama, he was appointed as an arts program head in the York Region District School Board. His first position here was in the town of Sutton. In 1997, Will  directed a year-long Totem project in Sutton, collaborating with the Indigenous people of Georgina Island on Lake Simcoe, Sutton DHS students and the local Georgina community at large. A number of secondary projects such as plays, storytelling events, video and digital projects resulted from the adventure. The final work, a totem pole, was erected by the town and proudly inaugurated during a provincial Pow-Wow.

​William's position in the 1990's included organizing art events and festivals, as well as chairing arts committees. He was the co-director of ArtFun and Fantasy Day Camp in Aurora in the late 1990’s, an instructor at the York Region Arts Camp from 1992-2016 and  taught courses at the Haliburton School of the Arts in the summers of 1998-2004. Until 2010, Lottering designed sets and lighting for high school plays and musicals, a role he thoroughly enjoyed. He taught a musical course titled 'Exploring the Arts'. Between 2005 and 2014, Lottering co-organized an annual volunteer graffiti cleanup event in Aurora, Ontario, in collaboration with York Region Police, the Town of Aurora and secondary school students. ​

​In 2014, Lottering moved on, when was appointed arts curriculum consultant at the York Region District School Board north of Toronto. He supported school administrations in the planning and facilitating of arts programs, designed and implemented arts curriculum, as well as instructed and supported arts teachers in Visual Arts, Dance and Drama. He chaired a YRDSB arts committee to organize two massive, region-wide integrated arts events to commemorate the Centenary of the Great War in 2015/16. The Visual Arts event was held at the York Region Administration Center in Newmarket and the performing Arts event at Alexander MacKenzie HS in Richmond Hill. As arts consultant, William coordinated region-wide YRDSB student experimental arts projects and art displays for the annual international Quest Education Conference.

William Lottering's work is displayed regularly in exhibitions and other events. He retired from the education world at the end of 2016 to focus on his studio practice. Currently, he teaches painting and life drawing courses, creates paintings, writes plays and presents regular talks about art. Often his plays are read at venues such as libraries, galleries or festivals. He travels regularly between Africa, Europe and the USA. Lottering's work is represented in public collections and he has executed commissions in South Africa and Canada. He is a member of Propeller Art Collective in Toronto and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.