Experience the works of our greatest art icons from the comfort of your home by streaming digital art straight to your favourite armchair.
This week sees Strauss & Co Fine Art Auctioneers launches Museum Moments, a new addition to its weekday Talkabouts on Zoom. Scheduled to occur every Wednesday from 4pm to 5pm, the series aims to draw attention to South Africa’s great diversity of museums focused on art.
Museum Moments
Expect fascinating insights into the history of each museum, their architecture, historical collections, vision and activities during the Covid-19 health crisis. Each dialogue session will focus on a single museum.
The series will kick off this afternoon with a focus on the @StellenboschUni Museum, which recently collaborated with the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape on an exciting exhibition of post-war art as part of the inaugural @StellenboschTriennale (of which @Strauss & Co was a sponsor), and keep your eyes peeled as they will be visiting museums across the country over the coming weeks
60 Second Art Stories
“We believe that art has the power to enrich our lives and that artists contribute to our communities in a profound way, so in these dystopian times, Norval Foundation will celebrate art and artists by releasing 60 second stories about one artwork or one artist, once or twice a day each day,” says Norval Foundation’s Chief Executive Elana Brundyn.
“The art being discussed either forms part of the Homestead Collection or is currently on display, and will be released on all Norval Foundation’s social media accounts.”
Clips will consist of a still image or video of one specific artwork, with local and international collaborators such as artists, curators, musicians, writers or museum team member reflecting on an artwork via a simple voice-over.
The clips can be viewed in retrospect, on Norval Foundation’s YouTube page, providing a digital gallery of accessible art experiences.
Norval Foundation Education Coordinator Lindsay Hendricks will also be narrating a series of #60SecondArt clips for kids including an exploration of William Kentridge’s small bronze art works made from everyday household objects that form part of his ‘Procession Series’, now on display at Norval Foundation.
These short clips provide light-hearted informative entertainment while immersing children in valuable art education.
While most clips will be narrated by Lindsay, there will also be special guest clips with voiceovers by younger narrators.
Among the artists focused on in Norval Foundation’s #60SecondArt is the Kenyan painter Michael Armitage, whose work is currently on exhibit at Norval Foundation. Art fans can tune in to #60SecondArt and listen to Chief Curator Owen Martin discussing Armitage’s “The Dumb Oracle,” 2019.
Amid the chaotic protests on the day, the artist draws on images, scenes and characters, both real and imagined to create this series of paintings.
“Especially in times like these, Norval Foundation endeavours to create high-quality content and public programming to broaden our understanding of the visual arts and now streaming digital art,” adds Brundyn. “Our aim remains to make art widely and digitally accessible to local and international visitors of all ages while creating a self-sustaining centre for art. And now we’ve made streaming art easier than ever before”
About Norval Foundation
Norval Foundation is a centre for art and cultural expression, dedicated to the research and exhibition of 20th- and 21st-century visual art from South Africa and beyond. Located in the Steenberg area of Cape Town, adjacent to Table Mountain National Park, Norval Foundation combines the experience of art with an appreciation for nature. Visitors gain access to the gallery spaces and the lush Norval Foundation sculpture gardens and the on-site restaurant The Skotnes, all now on view via the Norval Foundation virtual tour.
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