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| Location | Cape Town, South Africa |
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| Coordinates | 33°55′44″S18°24′54″E / 33.92889°S 18.41500°E |
| Website | www |
Iziko Museums of South Africa, formerly Southern Flagship Institution (SFI) and then Iziko Museums of Cape Town, is an organisation governing national museums in greater Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2024 [update] there are 11 museums in the group.
In 1998, five national museums in the Western Cape (the South African Cultural History Museum, South African Museum, South African National Gallery, the William Fehr Collection (at the Castle of Good Hope [1] ), and the Michaelis Collection) were amalgamated as the Southern Flagship Institution (SFI). [2]
In July 2001, the SFI was officially renamed Iziko Museums of Cape Town, and in September 2012, renamed Iziko Museums of South Africa. Iziko Museums of South Africa (known as Iziko) is an agency of the national Department of Arts and Culture, which governs the national museums of the Western Cape. [2] Iziko is a Xhosa word meaning "hearth". [3]
The duties of the Iziko Council, a body consisting of eight members which is appointed by the minister every three years, is laid out in the Cultural Institutions Act, 1998 (Act No. 119 of 1998). As of 2024 [update] , the chair of the 8th Iziko Council is Dennis Jabulani Sithole. [2]
The name is derived from the isiXhosa word iziko, meaning "hearth" — "traditionally and symbolically the social centre of the home; a place associated with warmth, kinship and the spirit of the ancestors". [1]
The 11 museums are:
The Maritime Centre was located in the decommissioned World War II vessel SAS Somerset at the V&A Waterfront, but in April 2024 the decision was made to scrap the ship, after it had fallen into disrepair. [4]
The Castle of Good Hope is a bastion fort built in the 17th century in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally located on the coastline of Table Bay, following land reclamation the fort is now located inland. In 1936 the Castle was declared a historical monument and following restorations in the 1980s it is considered the best preserved example of a Dutch East India Company fort.
Groot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa and provincial heritage site in the suburb of Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture. Its collection consists largely of Dutch, French and British works from the 17th to the 19th century. This includes lithographs, etchings and some early 20th-century British paintings. Contemporary art work displayed in the gallery is selected from many of South Africa's communities and the gallery houses an authoritative collection of sculpture and beadwork.
Buysile "Billy" Mandindi (1967–2005) was a black South African activist-artist who participated in a landmark protest in Cape Town in 1989, the so-called Purple Rain Protest. Later, still covered with the purple dye that riot police sprayed on protesters, Mandindi created a linocut celebrating the spirit of freedom.
The Iziko South African Museum, formerly the South African Museum, is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present site in the Company's Garden since 1897. The museum houses important African zoology, palaeontology, and archaeology collections.
Gardens is an affluent inner-city suburb of Cape Town located just to the south of the city centre located in the higher elevations of the "City Bowl" and directly beneath Table Mountain and Lion's Head. It is home to several national museums such as Iziko South African National Gallery and the Iziko South African Museum. The University of Cape Town also houses its Fine Arts department in the suburb, at Michaelis School of Fine Art. Company's Garden, South Africa's oldest garden, a public park and heritage site is a focal point of the suburb. The area is also home to the oldest synagogue in Southern Africa, the Old Shul and its successor, the Gardens Shul, "The Mother Synagogue of South Africa."
The Minister of Arts and Culture is a minister of the Cabinet of South Africa who is responsible for overseeing the Department of Arts and Culture. As of 26 May 2014 the incumbent minister is Nathi Mthethwa and his deputy is Maggie Sotyu.
William Fehr was a South African businessman and art collector noted for his acquisition of famous artworks, known as the William Fehr Collection, now on display in the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town. The collection was made publicly available for the first time in 1952 when Fehr and other collectors were invited to display historic pieces at the castle. A decade later the collection was purchased by the state and is now owned by The Department of Arts and Culture of South Africa.
SAS Somerset, originally named HMS Barcross, was a Bar-class boom defence vessel of the South African Navy. It operated in Saldanha Bay, was transferred to South Africa Naval Forces during World War II, and was purchased by South Africa in 1947. From 1986 it was preserved as a museum ship in Cape Town, before being scrapped in April 2024.
The Centre for Curating the Archive (CCA), at the University of Cape Town, began life as LLAREC in 1996 as a space in which material, both original and reproduced, created and found, was collected from a variety of archives, museums, collections, storerooms, offices and junk heaps and used creatively to curate exhibitions by artist-staff at The Michaelis School of Fine Art. In 2008 it expanded its activities to include a photographic unit, and it is now a centre which actively works with many different kinds of collections, developing curatorship as a creative site of knowledge. Projects, publications and courses aim, through practice, to open up novel combinations of the historically separated domains of the creative arts and the truth-claiming discourses of history and the social and natural sciences.
Athi-Patra Ruga is a South African artist who uses performance, photography, video, textiles, and printmaking to explore notions of utopia and dystopia, material and memory. His work explores the body in relation to sensuality, culture, and ideology, often creating cultural hybrids. Themes such as sexuality,Xhosa culture, and the place of queerness within post-apartheid South Africa also permeate his work.
Sue Williamson is an artist and writer based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Rust en Vreugd, is a historic house and garden, located on Buitekant Street at the edge of the central business district of Cape Town, South Africa. It is one of the few remaining 18th-century buildings in the city. The Rust en Vreudg is home to the William Fehr Collection of pictorial Africana. It is a part of the Iziko Museums.
Penny Siopis is a South African artist from Cape Town. She was born in Vryburg in the North West province from Greek parents who had moved after inheriting a bakery from Siopis maternal grandfather. Siopis studied Fine Arts at Rhodes University in Makhanda, completing her master's degree in 1976, after which she pursued postgraduate studies at Portsmouth Polytechnic in the United Kingdom. She taught Fine Arts at the Technikon Natal in Durban from 1980 to 1983. In 1984 she took up a lectureship at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. During this time she was also visiting research fellow at the University of Leeds (1992–93) and visiting professor in fine arts at Umeå University in Sweden (2000) as part of an interinstitutional exchange. With an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University, Makhanda – Siopis is currently honorary professor at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town.
iQhiya is a network of young black women artists based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. They specialise in a broad range of artistic disciplines including performance art, video, photography, sculpture and other mediums.
Zelda Nolte (1929–2003) was a South African- British sculptor and woodblock printmaker.
Jeannette Unite is a South African artist who has collected oxides, metal salts and residues from mines, heritage and industrial sites to develop paint, pastel and glass recipes for her large scale artworks that reflect on the mining and industrial sites where humanity's contemporary world is manufactured.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is a public non-profit museum in Cape Town, South Africa. Zeitz MOCAA opened on September 22, 2017 as the largest museum of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. The museum is located in the Silo District at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. A retail and hospitality property, the Waterfront receives around 24 million local and international visitors per year.
Bruce Arnott was a South African sculptor, curator, educator and academic. He was a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cape Town:
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