‘Tis the season for giving! We’re well aware that the price tags on some Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers can be downright scary. Yes, you love your family, but spending thousands of rands on gifts is pretty ridiculous – especially in an economic downturn!
So we’ve compiled a list of gifts under R500 to inspire your Festive Season gift shopping.
Heritage is something quite personal and changes from person to person.
It is something that we as South Africans particularly find important to recognise because of the diversity of our people, identified in the formative years of our Democracy by Nelson Mandela and his new government.
In his address marking Heritage Day 1996, the late former State President Nelson Mandela said: “When our first democratically elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.”
Heritage Day is a day to remember and celebrate all the various South African cultures and their unique heritage. When people talk about South African heritage, they might be referring to anything from famous stretches of coastline in Kwazulu-Natal, to shweshwe fabric or veldskoen, to Bunny Chow, Bobotie, boerewors and beyond. Prior to 1995 Heritage Day was in fact called Shaka Day in commemoration of the Zulu King, while in 2005 a campaign sought to brand the day as National Braai Day with the Archbishop Desmond Tutu accepting his role of patron of South Africa’s braai day in 2007.
Honouring the diversity of our country’s people and recognising our differences and richness in all respective cultures is at the heart of South Africa’s beautiful uniqueness.
Woodstock is known as a cultural hub jam-packed with artistic events, exhibitions and galleries around every corner. All of these serve to promote international work but more importantly, local talent. New galleries are constantly popping up and we’ll keep you in the loop on our events page. To get you started on what to look out for, the following five galleries stand out:
In 2014, Christian Sulger-Buel and Tamzin Lovell Miller partnered to launch Sulger-Buel Lovell in London. Christian had been collecting African art for over 35 years, and Tamzin opened her first gallery in Cape Town in December 2009.
The collection at the Lovell Gallery has a focus on fresh quality pieces with a majority focus on local artists, making stunning pieces available to art lovers at rather affordable prices. It has a main gallery where solo and group shows are displayed, as well as a smaller gallery upstairs with a variety of more contemporary works.
The Goodman Gallery has branches in Woodstock and Johannesburg, and is home to a fantastic collection of contemporary art by local as well as international artists. They will be hosting a major exhibition at the Woodstock gallery, titled ‘Africans in America’ from 17 November to 17 January, which you don’t want to miss.
The exhibition will be conceptualised and curated by Liza Essers and Hank Willis Thomas; and it runs concurrent to a major international academic conference. Follow their Facebook page for more details.
For curators and collectors looking for sculptures, paintings, performance pieces, installations or drawings, the WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery has become one of the most popular spots to find these artefacts in Woodstock.
WHATIFTHEWORLD intends to stimulate and facilitate critical debates and dialogue within the art community. They also have a very impressive history in publishing artist monographs and catalogues, and have been the host of a series of noteworthy exhibitions, continually looking for new ways to represent established and upcoming South African artists.
SMAC Gallery represents a number of established and emerging South African artists as well as international artists. They strongly encourage international exchange by hosting and offering exchange programmes to well-known international artists, as well as artists from the African continent. Don’t miss the upcoming exhibition, ‘Degreened’ by Frances Goodman that will be on display from 29 October to 3 December.
Blank Projects is an independent exhibition space that showcases multiple new developments and pieces of contemporary South African art. What makes this a great space is their willingness to feature experimental work and the regular flow of new and exciting exhibitions and artists. Don’t miss the current exhibition, ‘ASSEMBLE’ by Kyle Morland on display until 19 November 2016.
Keep your eyes on our social media profiles for follow-up posts on some more impressive galleries in Woodstock.
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