resident_artist


ARCHIVES / OUTREACH

	2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 2004 / 2003 / 2002 / 2001 / 2000

OUTREACH 2007
MAY - JULY Table View High School Lesego Moncho, North West Province Reddam High School. Dana Hargrove, Scotland Painting Workshop Bangikhaya Maqoqa , Eastern Cape, South Africa Ceramic and Clay Workshop Zukisa Toyi , Cape Town, South Africa Collage Workshop Ena Carstens, South Africa, Dana Hargrove, Scotland Music, Dance and Painting workshop Mishkaah Roberts ,Cape Town , South Africa & Rebecca Glover ,UK				APRIL Polly Alakija and 3 young emerging artists launch a mural on St James Street. Visual and textual Communication Workshop for artist-run spaces held at Greatmore Studios Paul Hendrikse ( the Netherlands) Collaborative workshop between weavers and printmakers Communication Workshop for artist-run spaces Philani Nomthunzi Mashalaba, South African Craft workshop for children at Sarah Fox home held in Athlone. Rebecca Glover, UK Children’s painting and drawing Workshop in Woodstock. Rudolph Tshie, South Africa JAN - MARCH Mural Painting at Artscape Garth Erasmus, South Africa

	MAY - JULY 2007 UNLOCKING POTENTIAL THROUGH ART In May 2007 the South African Police identified a skills development project that saw artists currently resident at the Greatmore Studios initiate art workshops with at risk children (former victims of alcoholism, divorce, sexual and physical) in the community at the Woodstock Learning Centre. The aim of the project is to see children, emerging from broken homes currently placed in foster homes and orphanages, coming to the centre to learn art skills and techniques amongst other vocational skills. It is hoped that the effort will help the children channel their energy into constructive projects that will see latent potential encouraged.


	Table View High School
	A group of artists resident at Greatmore Studios, Lesego Moncho, Velile Soha, Zukisa Toyi and Dana Hargrove went to Table View High School for 5 hrs to workshop their artworks,and engage the students in thier process of artmaking. "It was a very busy time, with many students passing through asking questions and looking at my sketchbook and artworks." "We enjoyed our walkabout at Table View High School where students had time to see various mediums and our team of artists, varying approaches to our compositions. The interaction was simply excellent as they are doing art as a subject in their school curriculum." Lesego Moncho, North West Province Lesego Moncho, Velile Soha, Zukisa Toyi and Dana Hargrove, Scotland . [Back to top]			View Image larger
	Reddam High School.
	In an effort to bridge the gap between private educational institutions and community based projects, Scottish visiting artist, Dana Hargrove visited Reddam High School where she conducted two artist talks with some of the students. Using recent images of her works on her notepad, Dana Hargrove presented a slide show and talked about her journey as an artist in the hope that she would inspire them and give them ideas of the possibilities open to them as they graduate. Dana Hargrove, Scotland [Back to top]
	Painting Workshop
	“According to my own personal judgement, as an experienced artist who has taught young one’s like these in the past, I saw an amazing potential that needed to be unveiled through the artwork. I conducted drawing workshops with the kids.” Bangikhaya Maqoqa , Eastern Cape, South Africa [Back to top]
	Ceramic and Clay Workshop
	Visiting Artists Lesego Moncho and myself initiated a workshop at the Woodstock Community Learning Centre. With a target group pf children aged 12years-14 years, the planning of the workshop went as scheduled. The children had little to no previous background in the basics of pottery and ceramics, and we modified the course to suit their specific level of knowledge. The attendance was 99% positive, drawing boys and girls bringing a balanced gender representation. The level of understanding of the children to what was being taught was impressive. They were a nice bunch of children to work with. We did not experience any accidents during the session. During the workshop the children were asked to work with clay and were encouraged to explore wedging, pinching and coiling techniques in an effort to build pots. Zukisa Toyi , Cape Town, South Africa [Back to top]
	Collage Workshop
	We worked with a small group of children at the Woodstock Community Learning Centre to create collage artworks. Collage is a picture made by sticking pieces of coloured paper to a surface. Coloured paper was found in old magazines donated by people from the area. The children were separated into smaller groups of 3-5 to work collaboratively on a design. The workshop turned out to be very successful and three large artworks were made during the hour. The children were quiet in their concentration and worked well within a team. They also were very proud of their final product. We hope that the children left the workshop with the feeling that they can produce and create wonderful artworks without needing expensive materials. The collage artworks will be kept and displayed inside the Community Centre classroom where these children and others can enjoy them. Ena Carstens, South Africa, Dana Hargrove, Scotland [Back to top]			View Image larger View Image larger
	Music, Dance and Painting workshop
	One of the artists enrolled during the April mentoring workshop, Rebecca Glover, and a local drama student and intern at Greatmore Studios, Mishkaah Roberts, initiated a movement and painting workshop as an appendage to the mentoring workshop. In an initiative to address the creative needs of children emerging from fractured homes (victims of alcoholism, sexual and physical abuse) in the community, the South African Police encouraged visiting artists at Greatmore Studios to teach a variety of art skills to a pool of deserving children. Ms. Glover and Ms. Roberts’ workshop employed music as the stimulus for creative expression both in movement and painting. The children were asked to respond through their body and with paint on a canvas to various kinds of music. In a recent report Mishkaah Roberts wrote the following: During the workshop some older children came in and asked to join us. After they asked us to run the workshop with them, enthused by how refreshed they were, tension was released and they commented later that they could concentrate better in class. The children we had to work with were incredibly well behaved. Shy at first with the movement, but they soon began to take part fully. Group work was the most successful; with the individual works shyness kicked in. As the energetic sounds of Gypsy Kings placed in the background the painting exercise released a bundle of energy. The response was good as expected. The slightly slower classical pieces seemed to develop a focus of concentration and a real fine connection with the music. Painting with closed eyes seemed to help here. Mishkaah Roberts ,Cape Town , South Africa & Rebecca Glover ,UK [Back to top]			View Image larger View Image larger

	APRIL 2007 DO A LITTLE GOOD The artists at Greatmore Studios are very serious about using their practice to uplift the community around them. Find below brief vignettes narrating the artistic contributions of four visiting artists in various communities in Cape Town from March- April 2007.
	Polly Alakija and 3 young emerging artists launch a mural on St James Street.
	South Africa has a long history of mural art in the urban landscape. A British born artist who has lived in Nigeria for 16 years, Polly Alakija is a former resident of Greatmore Studios and returns this April to launch a mural on the side of the existing studio building along St. James Street. Alakija's public mural kindly sponsored by the British Council aims to speak about the vibrant, colourful community of Woodstock and the blend of artists within the studios. By drawing in four emerging artists as 'apprentices' who worked closely with her, the artists were encouraged to develop their constructive expression. Through the project Alakija hoped to dissolve the barrier between a generation of mature seasoned artists and younger emerging artists from the community as well as speak about the collision of African and European cultures in a spirit of togetherness, evident in the studios. View movie on the making of Polly Alakija's Mural. [Back to top]
	Visual and textual Communication Workshop for artist-run spaces held at Greatmore Studios
	“My workshop was targeted at various artists, art practitioners and art administrators that provided them with an opportunity to share in my experiences with visual communication from the perspective of project space Artis that I used to run in the Netherlands (www.artisdenbosch.nl). Artis is one of the artist run spaces that started in the eighties in the Netherlands out of a need from artists to create a new platform next to the gallery and museum with a different aim and interest. Together with a group of artists we took over the space in 2002 after it had been run by two curators in the former fifteen years of its existence. Artis has been operating for over twenty years now. During the workshop, participants were encouraged to discuss the use and aims of printed matter for small organizations. At Artis we decided that ego-documents, brochures that are used as invites with the work of one or two artists, would be a good way of making an exhibition (next to the real one) on paper. The invites contained a text that was written for the exhibition. A part of the number of invitations was given to the artist. In the afternoon as a practical outcome of the workshop we worked on a series of wristbands. The idea came from a smilar project i inititaed in Alexandra during my residency at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg. The idea for using wristbands emerged as a different approach to spreading information. The big advantage of wristbands was that the information was carried with the person for a while before it would disappear. Also the wristbands created a kind of festival feeling." Paul Hendrikse ( the Netherlands) Paul’s complete work that he began in residency at Greatmore Studios is due to be exhibited during the E-Kapa sessions in November 2007 at the CAPE Platform. [Back to top]
	Collaborative workshop between weavers and printmakers Communication Workshop for artist-run spaces Philani
	“My idea was to have an amalgamation of two different media/artistic practices in an effort to explore different traditions that will hopefully result in some fresh, unique creative designs. The aim was to have individuals engage in different forms of creative design in both unconventional and conventional ways. The two groups of weavers and printmakers were asked to introduce to the other group how they carried out their practice. With only half of the agreed on participants present we had a slow start. We explored new drawing techniques and later on worked on the boards and then printed the new designs…The greatest challenge was trying to explain to the participants that the aim was to work towards a finished product as it was to simply improve their creative and experimental skills." Nomthunzi Mashalaba, South African Nomthunzi Mashalaba is a recent graduate from the Tswane University of Technology who opened her show of SQUARE-mixed media installation at Blank Projects. Nomthunzi was a visiting artist at Greatmore Studios from January-March 2007. Her work explores aspects of identity by combining culturally loaded images and materials in her installations, this young artist explores various aspects of her identity. [Back to top]
	Craft workshop for children at Sarah Fox home held in Athlone.
	“I ran a small workshop in April for the children at Sarah Fox convalescent home in Athlone. The purpose of the workshop was to simply provide the children with a simple and fun creative session, a change from their usual routine. We made beautiful little paper Mache butterflies from colourful pieces of tissues paper. Overall it went well but it was quite clear that the children found it fairly hard to focus for any length of time unless they had individual attention from a member of staff.” Rebecca Glover, UK [Back to top]
	Children’s painting and drawing Workshop Woodstock,
	“The children who participated( five boys and five girls between the ages of 8 and 13) were asked to produce two drawings and two paintings on the day, one drawing and one painting had to be of the same theme …but since kids are kids they felt to do what they thought was right for them. I was keen for them to explore themes around family….having been exposed to Capetonian children through art reach, has been a tremendous excitement truly.” Rudolph Tshie, South Africa [Back to top]
	MURAL PAINTING AT ARTSCAPE 2007			View Image larger SPONSORS who have kindly supported this project to date are: > THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN x 3 PANELS > ARTSCAPE > BRITISH COUNCIL x 1 PANEL > CONSULATE GENERAL of the FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY 2 x PANELS > THE DISTELL FOUNDATION x 1 PANEL > GREATMORE STUDIOS (through THE NATIONAL LOTTERY) x 3 PANELS Note: ALL sponsored funding is controlled by a contract agreement between both parties, administered and audited through ARTSCAPE’s financial department Read more about the project on Artscape's website.
	HISTORY The Mural project was initiated 2003/4 and originally sponsored by The City of Cape Town in association with ARTSCAPE Audience Development & Education. Renowned local artist and musician Garth Erasmus and his selected team of artists have to date, transformed part of the parking tunnel, linking the Civic Centre to the ARTSCAPE Theatre Centre into a visual arts project. DESIGN Garth Erasmus has exhibited works both locally and internationally. His visual art work expresses and celebrates indigenous Khoi identity and heritage. Garth is a former Arts teacher & member of the Khoi Khonnexion Performance and Art group. He is one of the founding Artists of the Greatmore Street Studios in Woodstock and involved in the Thupelo Workshop. The design of the mural follows a thematic progression with the character and feel of indigenous Khoisan iconography…a colourful celebration of our original cultural heritage, taking in the cultural forms and shapes of dance, music, mythology, landscape…. The theme depicts a movement “from darkness to the light” following the context of the link tunnel structure. The mural depicts the history of the Western Cape in all facets. The overall layout and design has been visualized by Garth Erasmus. AIMS To project aims to offer selected visual artists of all genres, from all communities in the Western Cape, to create employment in affording the opportunity in recognition of their individual talents. The Mural is to be completed in stages as and when sponsors or funding becomes available. Ideally the mural would be completed in time for 2010 as an additional attraction for tourism at that time. VISION > At present here are some 34 panels still to be completed > Each panel varies in size approximately 2.5metres to 6metres across x 1.5 to 3 metres high, depending on the logistics and structural points of the tunnel > Each panel costs R15,000 (negotiable depending on funds available) - making it viable for the visual artists to be paid for their time and expertise, in perpetuity of..., thus creating visual arts employment for the artists. > A descriptive plaque for each panel with the sponsor or corporate company logos, postcards, brochures, a coffee table book with colour plates and souvenir booklet depicting the final mural with descriptive history could be produced for local and worldwide visual arts distribution. > The tourism opportunities for visual arts lovers to view the mural and include the Artscape Theatre Centre at the same time. This will thus become a living visual arts museum at Artscape > The entire mural depicts our history & heritage in the Western Cape, which can be generated via schools as a visual arts introduction, history lessons, arts classes and general arts through education. > The follow-up marketing possibilities are endless once the mural is complete. Subsequent funds raised from the spin-offs could be utilised for future visual arts projects, educating and sustaining talented students for the future of visual arts in the Western Cape. Garth Erasmus [Back to top]