City celebrates International Museum Day with three events

Polokwane Municipality celebrated International Museum Day in the city with three events last week. The theme was “Museums as Cultural Hubs: The future of Tradition”.
The first event was the launch of the Sanlam-sponsored art exhibition hosted at the Polokwane Art Museum, featuring a century of South African art from the Sanlam Art Collection 1918 to 2018 last Wednesday evening. The collection of 70 art works on display included Maggie Laubser’s Selfportrait, Alexis Preller’s Primavera, Irma Stern’s Flowers as well as Gerard Sekoto’s Indaba and Johannes Maswanganyi’s Family Tree circa 1988. Curator of the Sanlam Art Collection, Stefan Hundt said that the exhibition provides a selection of significant objects and images which capture in instances the spirit of the aesthetic thought of the time and reflect on a point of history or on aspects of the social dispensation of the time.
Learners of Mohebudu Primary School in Moletjie visited the Irish House Museum in the city to celebrate International Museum Day (IMD) last Thursday. Demonstrations on rock art painting, pottery and beading were presented before the learners took the opportunity to make their own creations. IMD coordinator Liesl Stegmann said that the end products of the learners’ efforts were outstanding.
“They were so attentive and willing to learn,” she said.
On Friday evening learners from local schools and Boy Scouts and Girl Guides were entertained at Bakone Malapa Open Air Museum. The program included a sunset tour up Bambo Hill, traditional arts and crafts activity tables, traditional food and beer tasting and traditional dances.
Acting Manager Cultural Services of the municipality, Isaac Monthla said that the celebrations was a great success that brought the community together and created awareness for the conservation of the country’s cultural heritage.

Story and photos: BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com