OUR CRACKERJACK SPEAKERS
MEET THE MAKERS
See how creativity and cultures flourish in diverse urban as well as rural landscapes.
Meet talented artisans working in the far north of the country – the Limpopo province.
Hear about the buzz of big-city culture hubs – Johannesburg and Pretoria …
And an art fair pioneering a new marketplace for curated works from Africa.
MARCELLA ECHAVARRIA
Marcella is a New York based, lifestyle specialist who collaborates with designers artisans and entrepreneurs worldwide, developing links that connect local knowledge with global trends.
Her speciality is branding luxury and sustainability in a way that preserves cultures and traditions. She founded SURevolution in collaboration with Donna Karan in 2005 and contributed to the 2012 Hand/Eye edition on South Africa. And along the way, received a UNESCO award for promoting crafts.
Marcella has extensive experience in building bridges between cultures and people, and integrating sustainability and profitability. She travels the world to work with artisans and designers to preserve their craft and enhance profitability by linking developing communities to developed markets.
She’s interested in folk art, the handmade and people whose life journey consists in working with their hands. Her work gives small brands and enterprises much needed access to the currency and codes of developed markets.
She’s Colombia born with a bachelors from Brown, a masters from Bogota, a career in publishing – as editor of Harper’s Bazaar and contributor to Vogue, Wall Paper, Elle UK, and many such others, and lecturing – at Parsons in New York, and last month at Selvedge Art Fair, and advising – her consultancy firm focuses on branding and creative communication
LUCY MACGARRY
Lucy is a pioneering art curator, and co-founder of Latitudes Art Fair and Latitudes Online – a virtual marketplace created to provide a curated selection of artworks for collectors with an interest in art from Africa.
Both are the first of their kind to take a lateral and flexible approach to mediating African art, according to which galleries, independent artists, curators, online entities, and institutions experience equitable participation
With a Master of Fine Art from Wits University, Lucy’s curation of The South African Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 was critically acclaimed as a “must see” pavilion by numerous media amongst others Artsy, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Le Monde, The Art Newspaper, The Telegraph, Architectural Digest and Spiegel.
From 2014-16 she was curator of the FNB Joburg Art Fair. Alongside this, she curated the first TEDx talks event to focus on contemporary African art. She’s managed the corporate collections of Spier Wine Estate, Hollard Insurance and Nando’s Global. And in between, founded her own company L’MAD Collection, which creates limited edition collections to promote local artists and designers.
She’s also edited a publication focused on South Africa’s cultural scene, and a book on the establishment of the Zeitz MOCAA Museum published in partnership with Wallpaper* Magazine and Thomas Heatherwick Studio.
JANNEKE & GERT REBERGEN
Janneke and Gert have a keen interest in social development projects and understand the importance of social entrepreneurship, of fair trade and sharing.
They are putting their art and social entrepreneurship expertise into supporting projects in South Africa. And are collaborating with us on a tour called Meet the Makers by connecting interested visitors with their deeply established and sustained network of local artists and organizations.
Though travel-loving gypsies, Gert and Janneke regard South Africa as their second home after decades of visits and sustained ties with creative communities.
Their lifelong appreciation of art and design inspired them to open Gallery iZArte in their mother country, the Netherlands, that sold a range of products from southern Africa, and organized lectures, workshops, cultural exchanges and presentations.
They purchased the items in their collection from indigenous artists at a fair price, meaning that they walk their ethical talk.
Since the gallery’s closure, while they now blog about eye-catching and inspiring news from South Africa, their new initiative offers their network and expertise to local projects, underpinned by these key words: art/craft art, social impact and social entrepreneurship.