By Kate Crane Briggs
With the glorious summer weather, I’m leading regular art and architecture walks, some new and some old favourites. I do hope you’ll be able to join.
History – The old, the new and the future
For the 11th November the tour will be in central Cape Town looking at public art in its many shapes, sizes and styles. In countries such as the UK where I’m from, 11 November is a day of remembrance for the World Wars. So this will be one theme of the tour – old, new and future memorials. 10 am start in upper Bree St with street art painted for the Feb International Public Art Festival and finish at noon in Harrington St, District 6 by a huge mural (400 m2) painted by Bart Smates from Belgium in 2018 to mark 100 years since the end of WW1.
Gardens – The old, the green and the natural
If trees, gardens and Cape Town’s history are your thing, join the tour I’ve organised next Saturday, 5 Nov, led by landscape architect and chair of Tree Keepers Cape Town, Clare Burgess in Company’s Garden. This was, of course, South Africa’s first cultivated land. The saffron pear tree still stands (just) which was planted circa 1652 by the Dutch East India Company as they started their refreshment station here. 10am start at the delightful tea house, Café on the Vine, part of the Heritage Shop in the Garden but also accessible from Queen Victoria St.
Sunset Street Art Walkabout – The Colourful, the voice and the statement
With lighter evenings now, our next street art walk in Salt River starts at 5:15pm on Thurs 17 Nov and, for the first time, at Hope Distillery and Tasting Room with a gin and tonic. Sat 26 Nov we art this walk at 9:30am to avoid the strong mid-day heat, we start at the small café/bakery, Loaves by Madam Baker and finish close by at an artist’s studio. On Wed 14 Dec I’m waiting to decide on the time!
Smate and his work – image can be found here: https://m.facebook.com/BazArtCape/photos/a.1797725470467566/2553698421536930/
Museums – The history, the preservation and the care
If, like me, you love museums especially ones carefully thought through, not too large and meaningful, I recommend the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, very close to Somerset West. It is only 30 mins from Cape Town. The museum is part of our tour on Wed 15 Nov. We start nearby at Paardevlei, 9:30am at the hostels for white workers, designed by Sir Herbert Baker no less. We finish at Vergelegen, the farm which was founded in 1700. We’ll go to the site where the slave quarters and see in the homestead a model of what it could have looked like. Dr Timothy Visser is leading this tour; he is descended from both slave owners and enslaved people from this area. Timothy has been researching its history over many years.
R250 per person payable at least three days in advance, otherwise R350 each.
Make your reservations here:
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