Iziko Museums of Cape Town celebrates the significance of Youth Day this Wednesday, 16 June, by welcoming the public to visit our national museums for free (excluding the Castle of Good Hope and Iziko Planetarium). It is apt that South Africa celebrates our youth’s significant and courageous contribution to our democracy, as the world watches us host the most momentous sporting event to ever be held on African soil.

Youth Day marks the strength and vision of South African youth during the height of Apartheid, when, on the morning of 16 June 1976, thousands of black students put down their pencils and left their classrooms for what was intended to be a peaceful protest against the forced policies of the National Party government. Iziko Museums of Cape Town recognises the value of our youth throughout the year, by welcoming visitors 16 years and younger to visit our sites for free. What better way for entire families and friends of all ages to commemorate our nation’s struggle for liberation and our eventual realisation of equality and dignity for all South Africans, than by visiting Iziko Museums this youth day.

Iziko’s Education and Public Programmes department joins in the celebration of this youth month. Activities, which will commence at the Slave Lodge and Robben Island, mark the events of the winter of June 1976. Through this youth programme we ask how can we engage our youth to interpret freedom through creative means, thereby adding value to their intellectual development?

This is also an ideal opportunity to see some of our acclaimed exhibitions for free. African Dinosaurs is an exciting new exhibition, on permanent display at the Iziko South African Museum. As the title suggests, it showcases dinosaurs and their reptilian relatives that lived in Africa millions of years ago. The exhibition includes several uniquely South African fossil specimens, as well as fossils (or their casts) collected from other parts of Africa, including Morocco and Niger.

Iziko Social History Collections department presents Ghoema & Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town. This exhibition runs at the Iziko Good Hope Gallery at the Castle of Good Hope and showcases a unique part of Cape Town and South Africa’s history and culture – content that has never before been the subject of a museum exhibition.

A groundbreaking pair of exhibitions celebrating the life and times of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is currently running at the Iziko Slave Lodge, located on the corner of Adderley Street and Wale Street in Cape Town. The exhibition Mandela – Leader, Comrade, Negotiator, Prisoner, Statesman, is a rich and nuanced account of this great man’s legacy. It breathes fresh life into a story that has been told in countless books, documentaries and other exhibitions around the world. Presented in Cape Town for the first time, the exhibition was produced by the Apartheid Museum in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Museum and the Department of Education. Support from the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the National Lottery Development Trust Fund is also gratefully acknowledged.

For art enthusiasts a visit to the newly re-hung Iziko South African National Gallery, which re-opened to the public on 15 April, will make for a memorable experience. The large exhibition, entitled 1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, which occupies the entire Gallery, showcases the history and diversity of modern and contemporary South African art from the time of the formation of the Union of South Africa a century ago to the present. The exhibition covers the period when modern South African art started to articulate itself in relation to the rest of the world. The selection, primarily from the Iziko South African National Gallery Permanent Collection, is supplemented by works on loan from other public and corporate collections around the country. The exhibition acknowledges important developments in local art history such as Polly Street, Rorke’s Drift, DRUM magazine, Resistance Art, and the rise of South Africa’s energetic contemporary art scene.

return to press release page>>