By Kate Crane Briggs
Spring is the best time to explore Cape Town. It isn’t too hot, while rain is light and infrequent. The spring flowers are amazing, especially up the West Coast. Another Spring delight is spotting whales near the coast. There are not too many visitors around – Christmas to April is the really busy time.
To make the most of Spring in the Cape, I’ve organised a series of public, scheduled tours you can join. For October these range from curator tours of Sanlam’s art (8 Oct) and !Khwa ttu (21 Oct) to street art, architecture and garden guided walks.
Head to Bellville with me on Sat 8 Oct to enjoy the HER exhibition and art behind the scenes, both at Sanlam’s head office. The gallery is closed at weekends but curator, Stefan Hundt is opening up especially for this tour. We start at 10am in HER which opened aptly in August, women’s month and closes soon (22 Oct).
HER has work by the well known female names in South African art history – Irma Stern, Maggie Laubser, Judith Mason, Pippa Skotnes, Penny Siopis and the like. A few of the works I’ve seen in other exhibitions, but there are many artists and works new to me. After HER Stefan will treat us to artwork not on public display. Sanlam’s collection is extensive – it started in 1965 and continues to grow.
For a very different type of art experience, do come on one of my street art tours in Salt River, a tucked away yet central neighbourhood in Cape Town, next to Woodstock. The huge number, size and range of murals is staggering. Artists are from near and far (eg Israel, Brazil and Belgium). Join a small group on Wed 19 Oct, Thurs 17 & Sat 26 Nov or Wed 14 Dec. We start at 10am (or 5:15pm 17 Nov and 14 Dec).
I’m the architecture guide at Artroute and one of the ways I learn is by getting experts in the industry to lead tours. Heritage architect, Dr André van Graan will be leading our central Cape Town Art Deco walk on Wed 26 Oct, 5:15pm, starting at that gem of an optometrist, Mullers, Longmarket St. Town Planner, Tommy Brummer, will be coming as he knows so much about architect William Grant who designed so many of Cape Town’s ‘’moderne’’ buildings. Dr Chris Low, Oxford University researcher and director of !Khwa ttu will be showing us round there on Fri 21 Oct. While landscape architect, Clare Burgess, is taking us round Company’s Gardens on 5 Nov; both 10am.
Do join us; R250 early birds payment, then R350 (more info here),
Kate Crane Briggs
[email protected]
+27 (0)72 377 8014 Mob / WhatsApp