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The Maboneng Township Arts Experience
The Maboneng Township Arts Experience is a national public arts exhibition that turns homes in townships into galleries and the outdoor spaces into performance districts, working with homeowners and families in general to create a warm intimate arts environment in our townships.
The annual exhibition happens annually over two days in three townships around the country. The exhibition includes film screenings, visual art, dance, theatre and music.
After 10 years, The Maboneng Township Arts Experience has turned over 70 homes around townships in South Africa into galleries, exhibited over 50 artists and encouraged township residence towards art buying. This is based on the notion that the townships are the epicentre of the arts around the world. The vision is to end the negative notion of townships by 2030 through the arts. Townships will turn to great towns. This will be done by celebrating the simpler and closer things in life, like homes, families and the high calibre of community ethics.
The Maboneng Township Arts Experience has been chosen as one of the projects in the official programme of the 2014 World Design Capital. This is in line with how it always showcases how design thinking as an art form can be used to enhance and inspire township communities.
The Maboneng Township Arts Library & Gallery
2013 is proving to be a jam-packed year with all sorts of wonders brewing. In partnership with MAL and MC Weiler Primary, it will be launching the Maboneng Township Arts Library & Gallery. The building was commissioned by MAL to Architects of Justice and is situated at the MC Weiler Primary School in Alexandra Township. This charming arts gallery will be launched on Saturday, 28 September, as part of the 2013 Maboneng Alex Township Arts Experience. The Alex leg of the exhibition will also see the launch of the permanent arts route, which allows art viewings by arrangement, meaning that art viewings will possible throughout the year, even when it is not the annual exhibition.
Much of the year, however, has been spent preparing for the awaited 2013 Maboneng Township Arts Experience exhibitions that will be held on the following dates:
Adopt a home
A new introduction is the "adopt a home" system, which allows institutions and interested parties to adopt a home to curate. It anticipates homes in township being curated by the likes of Momo Gallery, Africa Centre, Greatmore Studios and Akin Omotoso. The movie Man on Ground will be screened, which tackles the thorny issue of xenophobia, something that is regrettably rife in our country but is fortunately being tackled through the arts in our townships. The screenings will be followed by dialogue sessions.
The screenings and dialogues will be a feature at all the Maboneng Township Arts Experiences in Alex, Gugz and Madadeni. They will be bringing over artists from the University of Johannesburg who will be mixing with home-grown artisans from Alex. On the walls in Cape Town there will be humbles like Rayaan Cassiem, Faith 47, Anwaar and many more. To top it off they have been joined by Plascon to launch the most amazing colour frenzy the townships have ever seen.
As you arrive at The Maboneng Township Arts Experience, you will be met by a tour guide who will gladly usher you to the homes where you will be met with open arms. You will do a door-to-door visit while being creatively interrupted by performances on the streets.
Shuttle system
In an effort to make attending the Maboneng Township Arts Experience convenient, they are introducing a shuttle system for the Alexandra and Gugz Exhibitions. As a result of an alliance with Ekse Tours (www.eksetours.co.za) you will now be able to make use of a shuttle service to get to the 2013 Maboneng Alex Arts Experience. The venue for departure will be the Joburg Art Fair at the Sandton Convention Centre. Tickets will be R200 per person for a return shuttle, available via the Ekse Tours website.
A partnership with Art for Me and Coffee Bean Routes in Cape Town will enable you to attend the Maboneng 2013 Gugz Township Arts Experience via the Coffee Bean Shuttle (www.coffeebeansroutes.com). The details regarding shuttle services are as follows: Art for Me (www.artforme.co.za) is an art fair that will be held in Cape Town at the same time as the 2013 Maboneng Gugs Art Experience. The starting point will be the Lookout at the V&A Waterfront. There is plenty of on-street parking and the taxi and MyCiti routes are a block away. Grab a coffee there while you wait. Tickets will be R200 per person for a return shuttle, available via Web Tickets. Details on www.eksetours.co.za coffeebeansroutes.com and maboneng.com.
Finally, a number of opportunities to share the Maboneng Township Arts Experience journey and vision have presented themselves in the form of speaking engagements at the recent ACT Creative Currencies Conference, Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), and University of Johannesburg.
Bringing to light the Maboneng Township Arts Experience vision is imperative and so is sharing how it has evolved and come full circle in its journey.
Dates of forthcoming talks are as follows:
For more, go to www.eksetours.co.za, www.coffeebeansroutes.com and www.maboneng.com.
