Meet prominant artists, intellectuals, and heroes who challenged the system of apartheid

 

Make your own art and collaborate with artists from the Venda region in South Africa

This summer study abroad trip to South Africa will provide an opportunity for participants to critically engage in issues of transformation and the democratization of South African society through visual culture.

The dismantling of apartheid and a democratically elected government in South Africa affords participants the following;

•  to explore first hand the unique changes that are taking place in the visual arts and material culture in South Africa.

•  through site visits, seminar series, prominent guest speakers and artists, participants will gain a perspective on the issues, problems and successes that surround the democratization of the visual arts in South Africa.

•  collaborate, dialogue and create art with artists in the Limpopo region and Johannesburg (Artists Proof Studio)

•  study the diverse spaces that artists inherit and function in, from studio, gallery to site visits in urban and rural areas.

•  participants will be challenged on how contemporary formats and art processes are derived at, by investigating the work of traditional art and contemporary art in urban and rural spaces.

•  explore how the South African model might have a bearing on the contemporary visual art scene in the USA.

The summer study abroad trip will cover the following topics and issues:

 

Sites of Memory and Archeology >>

In Cape Town >

•  Art and Democracy. Introduction to the seminar series. Political overview and transition to Democracy. Guest speaker. Ex Robben Island Political Prisoner. Field trip to Robben island

•  Visual culture, archeology and public memory: Site visit to District Six Museum.

•  Volatile Alliances: A shift from colonialism, white domination to post-apartheid society. New Limits new Frontiers. Field Trip to South African National Gallery.

•  Trip to Kayalitsha and arts organizations.

•  Visual culture and ethnicity in a democratic South Africa. An assessment of the context of visual culture in Cape Town.

Note: Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be free. Activities to be decided for those who would like to participate are visit to a home to meet South Africans and taste Cape Malay cuisine, a jazz club, wine route, tour of the Cape during the week and over the week-end.

In Johannesburg/Pretoria >

•  Art and Transformation in South Africa. Guest Speaker: Sipho Mdanda and panel discussion

•  site visit to Soweto Township, Funda Centre, Hector Peterson Memorial and Apartheid Museum. Lunch in a Shebeen.

•  The role of government in the transformation of the Arts and Culture Industry: Guest Speaker

•  The new search for identity: Place-Displacement in the contemporary art world as South African artists. Traditions in a new context including site visit. Field trip: Johannesburg Art Gallery and Artists Proof Studio: Guest Speaker

•  Examination of exotic contrsucts: Field trip to Voortrekker Monument and Pretoria Art Gallery, Ndebele Village.

•  Traditional South African Art including site visit. Guest speaker: Gertrude Posal Gallery at University of the Witwatersrand)

•  New Subjectivities: Discussion with prominent contemporary Artists. The struggle through Apartheid and subjectivities

•  Invisible Borders: Site visits to study contemporary art making in Limpopo region and the Thulamela archeological site in the Kruger National Park

•  Working, creating art and collaborating with artists in Venda for one week