Heritage Week at Iziko Museums

Heritage Day is one of the more recent pub­lic hol­i­days added to the South African cal­en­dar and it cel­eb­rates some con­cepts that are rather hard to pin down. These being cre­at­ive expres­sion, our his­tor­ical inher­it­ance, lan­guage, the food we eat and the land on which we live. Now if that sounds like a mouth­ful, I like to think of Heritage Day as a time to cel­eb­rate where I come from and everything around me that makes me, me.

As South African’s we have a unique cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity and this should not only be cel­eb­rated once a year, we should endeav­our to cel­eb­rate this every day. Heritage Day is a great reminder to each of us to cel­eb­rate these concepts ...

It is not often that you get things for free, how­ever the Iziko Museums have decided to treat us to free entrance at all of the Iziko Museums in Cape Town from 21–27 September 2009. Now isn’t that grand? Not only is the entrance free, there are also a num­ber of excit­ing activ­it­ies, exhib­i­tions and more to enter­tain you and your family.

Plenty will be hap­pen­ing at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Iziko Slave Lodge and Iziko South African Museum through­out the day. For those of us on a strict budget, more oppor­tun­it­ies to enjoy all that the Iziko Museums have to offer includes free Planetarium shows, film screen­ings and a craft expo. And for night owls, some of the pro­grammes run until 22h00, so you won’t have to miss any of the programmes.

Heritage Day (Thursday 24 September 2009) will be very event­ful — Be escor­ted by the inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed Western Cape Marching Band from the Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum in Wale Street to the Iziko South African Museum in the Company’s Gardens. You will also have the oppor­tun­ity to learn the 2010 iDiski dance (it is said to be easy to learn and con­tains a num­ber of soc­cer moves), meet DJ Suga from Good Hope FM or take one of the guided tours.

Sit back and relax a bit after a morn­ing of activ­it­ies and learn more about Marie Koopman-De Wet – a Cape Town social­ite from the late 18^th Century – at the Koopmans-De Wet House. Tickets are R30 per per­son and the show is from 13h30 to 15h30 (con­tact Sibulele on +27 (0)21 464‑3280 for more inform­a­tion), and at 16h00 enjoy an hour long per­form­ance of MyCapeTown which explores the music, sights and sounds of Cape Town at the SA Museum Amphitheatre.

The Iziko Museums have planned a host of activ­it­ies and put together exhib­i­tions that will appeal to one and all. This is a non-profit organ­isa­tion par­tially fun­ded by the National Department of Arts and Cultures and any dona­tions from indi­vidu­als and cor­por­ates will be appre­ci­ated so that they can con­tinue allow­ing the pub­lic access to these fant­astic museums which rep­res­ent so much of South African cul­ture.

Interested in archi­tec­ture? Then visit the Iziko South African National Gallery from 21–27 September 2009 to visit The Everyday and the Extraordinary exhibit which show­cases work from inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised Professor Jo Noero. Other exhib­its include 'From Fire into Form' which is a fas­cin­at­ing dis­play of bronze sculp­tures with pieces dat­ing back to the 1500's in Italy right through to mod­ern day South Africa.

A truly South African term, “jolling”, mean­ing  to have a party or fun time will explored in the exhibit entitle 'Jol' and fea­tures pho­to­graphs from Billy Monk. He is famed for his images cap­tured at the Cape Town Catacombs Club in the 1960's. Graham Goddard is also show­cased in this exhibit with his paint­ings and prints cap­tur­ing the spirit of “jolling”.

For more inform­a­tion and full pro­gramme details you can con­tact the gen­eral enquir­ies desk on +27 (0)21 481‑3800 or visit their web­site at www.iziko.org.za

How will you be spend­ing your time this Heritage Day? Let us know by post­ing your com­ments and sug­ges­tions in the com­ment box below.

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