Art & Design Matters

Another Global Change-Agent
The director and chief curator of Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa), Koyo Kouoh, has been appointed curator of the Venice Biennale 2026 - the 61st International Art Exhibition ... Read More

A Portal to Humanity’s Past
Blombos Cave on the Southern Cape coast of South Africa, one of the world's most significant archaeological sites, holds keys to reshaping our understanding of early human behaviour ... Read More

Celebrating Talent
The House and Garden Designer of the Year (DOTY) Awards for 2024 honour a selection of extraordinary Southern African talent across various fields, from architecture and interior design to product design and art ... Read More

Showcasing Africa’s Creatives
The biggest showcase of contemporary art from Africa, this year's Investec Cape Town Art Fair offers first-time features along with a lineup of talks, walkabouts & opportunities to explore the artistc life of the city ... Read More

A Visionary Agent of Change
The Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal winner, Prof Lesley Lokko is a renaissance figure who has etched an indelible mark on the global stage ... Read More

A Lifeline of Support / Beacon of Hope
Woza Moya uses traditional Zulu beadwork in creative and revolutionary ways. Go online to see its eye-catching designs and oh-so desirable jewellery. This social entreprise is a lifeline of support and a beacon hope to hundreds ... Read More

Tech Meets Tactile
Textile embroidery artisans from the Keiskamma Art Project celebrate their Eastern Cape landscape, fauna and flora in collaboration with Clout/SA, a creative agency & market-maker ... Read More

Africa: The Laboratory of the Future
“Africa is the laboratory of the future” says the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. Its unique context - challenging & creative - means it's a powerful place from which to examine dominating issues ... Read More

Springboard For Opera Singers
The world’s most prestigious competition - Operalia - was founded in 1993 by Plácido Domingo to discover and help launch the careers of the most promising young opera singers of today. ... Read More

Art Meets Architecture
Scenic Routes that "ignite new reflections on nature itself and how we take care of it for the future.
Along carefully selected roads, natural wonders are amplified by art, design, and architecture, with emphasis on the unique landscape and qualities of the different locations" ... Read More

Making Hearts Feel Strong
Nelson Mandela said Johnny Clegg “made our hearts feel as strong as the African day''.
Clegg was an important figure in South African music and a prominent white figure in the resistance to apartheid. His band Juluka was the first group in the apartheid-era with a white man and a black man ... Read More

Acclaimed No.1 City in Africa
Cape Town is South Africa's crown jewel, worth visiting year-round. Ranked No. 1 City in Africa by Travel + Leisure, its iconic Table Mountain has been voted as Africa’s leading tourist attraction by the 2021 World Travel Awards ... Read More

One of The World’s 100 Greatest Places
TIME magazine's list of 100 unique destinations shines a light on ingenuity, creativity, revitalization and reopenings in destinations across the world. They are well worth reading (and dreaming) about until it's time, once again, to explore. One of the 100? South Africa's inclusion is located in the Kruger National Park
... Read More

A Fresh Lens On African Beauty
“If I speak of African beauty, I need to focus on ... what makes us uniquely beautiful. To me, being African means being colorful and full of life. I am so proud to come from this continent!'' - photographer Thandiwe Muriu ... Read More

The Quintessence of Art
The Irma Stern Museum is enticing the public into the former home of one of South Africa's most sought-after artists, with an exhibition devoted to Nudes.
''Stern viewed the naked female body through many lenses, all inherited from the various traditions of European art. By engaging with each lens at different times she not only extended the tradition and affirmed her place within it, but she found a means to express her own vivid, interior life''. ... Read More

Sculpting Ancestral Dreamscapes
'iThongo' means “ancestral dreamscape” in Xhosa - one of South Africa's 11 languages.
This is a series of sculptural seats hand-coiled in terracotta clay, each standing at almost a metre tall.
The design of each backrest is based on a symbol from an extensive lexicon that Andile Dyalvane has devised. ... Read More

‘Beyond Walls’ in Cape Town
Saype, the world's most famous land artist, chose Cape Town as host to the ninth stage of his global project because his work symbolises the breaking down of political and social barriers between communities.
Depicting the largest human chain in the world, it invites people to help each other, show kindness and live tolerantly together ... Read More

It’s All About Perspectives
''If you take history seriously, the real point is to understand one's own history and work with the grain, not against it. It means learning from mistakes and not clinging to yesterday's theories and visions" - R.W.Johnson ... Read More

Pioneering ‘Room to Shine’
LATITUDES is a platform for African art in international times. The first African art fair that is 100% owned by women, it's a niche-focused fair that seeks to expand and strengthen local art audiences and promote African art in an economically viable manner ... Read More

Unstoppable Creative Talent
If you want to refresh your perspective, stimulate your mind, and see some of South Africa's ''unstoppable'' talent, join us!
Hear from founder Fee Halsted about her Ardmore team's ability to create magnificent forms during trying times that is a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit ... Read More

New Eyes – New Tangent
We have selected Cyrus Kabiru’s images of eyewear as a perfect metaphor for the new tangent we're launching, because his work deals with imagination and transformation.
''Seek with New Eyes'' is a webinar series that will take you on a voyage of discovery around South Africa. Join us on Sep 23 ... Read More

Beguiling Botanical Whimsy
One of South Africa’s most sought after illustrators has created a classic botanical chart in a fresh style that is beautiful as a work of art as well as functional. The Flowering Plants of South Africa features a collection of 85 interesting and indigenous plants that includes the plants’ scientific names, bugs & critters used for pollination ... Read More

A First in the Field of Art
Willem Boshoff is a world-renowned artist whose works involve long-term archival research across a range of disciplines such as music, botany, visual arts, philosophy.
His sought-after sculptures offer much more than meets the eye. His works are drenched in text, either on the artwork itself, or accompanied by a detailed description ... Read More

Best Vineyard in Africa
A worthy destination for locals, as well as future travellers to South Africa, to explore and celebrate the countrys best-loved wine region, where we really know how to do idyllic landscapes in the Cape Winelands. Join us at this must-visit place! ... Read More

Blank Page For New Beginnings
Disasters are known as powerful ignition tools for radical ways of transforming business practices. To harvest emerging ideas trend forecaster Li Edelkoort is organizing a platform to counterbalance the World Economic Forum - The World Hope Forum ... Read More

Creative Trailblazer
Louis Schwartzberg is an inspiring visual artist who celebrates life and reveals the mysteries of nature, people and places ... by providing breathtaking imagery using time-lapse, high-speed and macro cinematography ... Read More

Creative Solution to a Vexed Issue
Banksy's idea''caters for those who miss the Colston statue and those who don't. We drag him out the water, put him back on the plinth, tie cable round his neck and commission some life size bronze statues of protestors in the act of pulling him down'' ... Read More

Art that Works
Stationery that stops aliens and thwarts a silent killer! By handcrafting beautiful art that works (as opposed to works of art), planting seeds of inspiration, and growing sustainable solutions ... Read More

Wise Words From Global Gurus
As a species, our best design stories still lie ahead of us. For over 25-years, Design Indaba Cape Town has presented a slew of visionary thinkers whose innovations have truly shaped our globe ... Read More

Abuzz with Art Fairs & Art Tours
Cape Town is abuzz. Last week was epic tennis and magic music. This week is creative. With the Cape Town Art Fair and the launch of our ''Meet the Makers Tour'' in September 2020 ... Read More

How Great Is Thy Art?
The new Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria gives the city of jacarandas (and the whole country) a new cultural landmark & window into the past with the Mapungubwe Collection ... Read More

H&M’s First African Collaboration
You may not have heard of Palesa Mokubung, but you have most certainly seen her creativity celebrated. Here is her latest Mantsho x H&M visual feast! ... Read More

Singular Brand Icon
A South African design icon. A brand pioneer. A singular woman of note whose functional products will remain in our homes and hearts. Carroll Boyes RIP ... Read More

Cape Town’s Coolest Neighbourhood
Find out how, if cities were romances, Cape Town would be the love-at-first-sight kind.
And how a landmark hotel, groundbreaking art spaces, and buzzy restaurants & bars are transforming the city's skyline ... Read More

Honouring A Resilient Visionary
David Koloane - a revered voice in Africa’s artistic landscape, celebrated for his contribution to South Africa’s cultural struggle - whose loss leaves the art world hollow ... Read More

Wanderlust Renegades : Part 2
If you’re on a trip and start to ask yourself, I wonder who came up with that clever idea? Those answers are amongst a few of the game-changers ... Read More

Wanderlust Renegades : Part 1
If you're on a trip and start to ask yourself, I wonder who came up with those e-scooters? Or the ... Read More

Vibrant Additions to Cape Town’s Street Gallery
A collection of global street artists create inspiring new murals in Cape Town with a collective message in mind courtesy the International Public Arts Festival
... Read More

Serendipitous Synchronicity
Cape Town celebrates the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa's new director/curator Koyo Kouoh, and humungous wall-hanging sculpture made by acclaimed El Anatsui ... Read More

The Case For Visiting Cape Town
You really can't overstate the case for visiting Cape Town. It's just come tops in the Telegraph award for The World's 50 Best Honeymoon Hotels & Destinations ... Read More
Bottom Up Resilience In Africa
The challenges faced by Africa's rapidly growing cities are unique. Chief Resilience members from Accra, Addis Ababa, & Cape Town share how their cities are working to solve these ... Read More

Accolades & Awards
The World Architecture Festival praises Cape Town's Waterfront art museum - the Zeitz MOCAA - for its "unique, evocative space" and judges it the winner of the 'New & Old - Completed Building' category ... Read More

More Than Meets The Eye
There's more to a coffin and the rituals of death than meets the western eye. The Ga people of Ghana see them as “receptacles of proverbs” or “proverbial coffins.” ... Read More

Inspiring Problem Solving
''Ground breaking ideas that are changing the way we live work, play and think about what's possible'' plus The Africa Prize ... Read More

Transforming Livelihoods
Celebrating African initiatives where objects made by the human hand reflect the inherent essence of the spirit of the maker ... Read More

Top Museums in Cape Town
Condé Nast Traveler's list of the Top 15, deemed worthy of visiting. "The city's art scene is on fire, from cultural touchstones to cutting-edge contemporary". ... Read More

The Past Is Still Unfolding
Reflecting on different architectures of dominance linked to entrenched powers of colonialism, racism & relentless capitalism ... Read More

Art’s Voice Returning to Africa
Another good day in Africa. Yinka Shonibare's multifaceted oeuvre grapples with the lasting legacy of colonialism ... Read More

Double Cool
Forbes Magazine names 12 "cool" new neighbourhoods around the world. And South Africa happens to get TWO mentions: one in Cape Town & a Johannesburg counterpart just as vibrant ... Read More

Quality With A Conscience
A paper cutout inspired by the pincushion protea - and a play on the word “froufrou” - generating two local initiatives we love ... Read More

Endangered Fun
''It’s important to show what beauty humans are capable of with their hands rather than the destructive mass production” ... Porky Hefer ... Read More

Human-Centred Design
Opportunities pave a way for innovation unlike any other. See how a human-centred approach to design enhances ways to make magic happen ... Read More

Another Chelsea Gold
South Africa's culturally-oriented display features not only our unique flora, but also the Cape Flats, where Apartheid shunted people to divide black from white ... Read More

A Modern Day Treehouse
The latest winners of the 2018 Corobrik SAIA Architectural awards have been announced, and this gem of a structure is just such a design to behold in Constantia, Cape Town ... Read More

More Glorious Art
The Norval Foundation is a just-opened centre dedicated to 21st-century visual art from South Africa, with world-first retrospectives of Kumalo & Legae ... Read More

State of Grace @ Zeitz MOCAA
A most magical musical evening at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. The Chanticleer Singers enchanted. Richard Cock conducted inimitably. Classical guitarist James Grace beguiled. ... Read More

An Academic Fashion Moment
South African cultural warrior, artist Esther Mhlangu, with her Ndebele art collaborations across the globe, receives an honorary doctorate ... Read More

An “Ubuntu” Celebration
We love a celebration! And when it is wild, whimsical and just wonderful, we raise our glasses even higher ... Read More

Fuelling African Innovation
Michelle Obama: ''You can choose to go along with what everyone is doing, or you can become whatever you want to be in this life. That’s what Siya Xuza did'' ... Read More

Changing the World – One Story at a Time
Do write. Do right. A business that's providing a canvas to kick-start ideas to develop the minds of young children via story books ... Read More

Ardmore’s Voyage of Discovery
Cape Town is hot & happening - basking in long hot summer days & a creative vortex peaking with the Cape Town Art Fair, Design Indaba & host of design-related events ... Read More

Among The World’s Best New Buildings
The prestigious 2018 RIBA International architecture award features 62 projects from around the world, with 2 from South Africa: Zeitz MOCAA & the “Empower Shack” ... Read More

Opening A World Of Wonder
A remarkable talent building method to develop innate musical abilities that can open a new world for disadvantaged kids, as it did for their visionary teacher Maria Botha
... Read More

Distillation of Nature
Sculptor Dylan Lewis has moulded 7 hectares into an undulating landscape that mirrors the contours of Stellenbosch Mountain towering above it, and displays his sculptures to perfection ... Read More

Best of the Best, and a lady!
You don't have to believe us, but the award for the world's Best Female Chef at The Best Chef Lady ... Read More

Socially Engineering Love
The Secret Love Project ... just imagine changing the image of hearts to swastikas or to the word “hate” and sticking those all over town ... Read More