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One hundred years ago - on 1 September 1895 - the "South African Art Gallery Act" was promulgated,
declaring a small but already significant collection, assembled by the citizens of Cape Town, the
property of the Cape Colonial Government. An auspicious decision indeed, but one which also held
negative implications for the future. At this time, when our country and our national art
institution are in state of transition, it is rewarding to reflect on the past and consider a
vision for the future.
Cape Town can record the presence of a public art collection as far back as 1761 when thirty two paintings, selected from the estate left by Joachim Nicolaas van Dessin to the Dutch Reformed Church, were placed on view in the sexton's home in Adderley Street. Some of them were later to be exhibited in the South African Library and eventually came under the custodianship of the South African Fine Arts Association. But organizing and visiting exhibitions really only became an ongoing activity from the middle of the 19th century, when a group of enthusiasts started holding regular exhibitions. During the 1860s there were complaints in the press that little advance had been made in providing for the arts in the Cape; it was not until 1871 that a concerted and constructive effort was made towards a permanent collection and a building in which to house it. Prominent personalities such as Thomas Butterworth Bayley and Abraham de Smidt founded the South African Fine Arts Association (which continues today as the South African Association of Arts) and in 1872 a property in New Street, now Queen Victoria Street, was acquired. Bayley's collection came to rest in what he had designated the "South African Art Gallery". By 1895 there were well over a hundred works in the collection when the government incorporated the institution and bought the premises for educational purposes. Years of neglect and indecision followed, until the present building was opened on 3 November 1930. The funds came from the Cape Colonial Government, the City Council and from the Hyman Liberman estate for the addition of the Liberman Hall and the magnificent memorial doorway carved by Herbert Meyerowitz. By 1932 the Gallery had been incorporated as "The South African National Gallery", a state-aided institution governed by a Board of Trustees. In 1937 a number of rooms were added and in 1969 the Marist Brothers property adjoining the South African National Gallery was offered to the Board of Trustees. From 1989 to 1991 the building was closed for renovations and the installation of climate control and a new lighting system. The lack of adequate space and facilities has been critical for more than a decade and is now receiving attention. We are also conscious of the urgent need to take exhibitions beyond the confines of existing buildings; this will require the establishment of venues in provinces which have no facilities, as well as in the townships and in the rural areas. The success of the Natale Labia Museum as an exhibition venue and cultural centre in the False Bay area, is convincing proof of the desirability of satellite facilities. I am writing this message on the eve of the Arts and Culture Task Group (AGTAG) national conference, which is taking place from 31 May - 2 June. On the table will be proposals for a new dispensation for museums, and a single, unifying policy. We are poised to play a co-ordinating role in the organisation of national and international exhibitions, to contribute to the generation and promotion of our national visual culture, and the creation and implementation of a national policy for art education in museums. The concepts of nationhood, national consciousness and of a national culture are integral to the new South Africa. One of the most important ways of contradicting the fragmentation of people and culture created by the apartheid regime, and of nurturing and fostering the rainbow nation - which allows for sameness and for difference - is through a national art museum and other cultural institutions with national status. The role of museums, and of art and culture in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), as well as its implementation by the SANG, have been touched on in previous issues of bonani. On 13 May we held a public meeting - the first of its kind - to inform people about our work and to hear about their perceptions, responses and ideas. Approximately seventy people came to the meeting which was chaired in a most able, informed and objective manner by Crain Soudien. His willingness to engage, his articulacy and grasp of the issues - and the nuances - contributed enormously to the success of the morning's proceedings. The process is now being taken forward by a joint working committee comprising SANG staff and members of our community. All interested persons are invited to attend the next meeting on Saturday 29 July. Past, present and future will come together in a telling manner on 24 September, our first official Heritage Day, when the African Art Heritage Collection will be handed over to the SANG by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, which made this major acquisition possible (see page 2). This will be a fitting tribute to our policy of repatriating art works which have been taken out of southern Africa since the 19th century.
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