Rating
3 hours
Monday to Sunday
12+
2 to 16 people
Incl. Food
Reviews
The Maboneng Township Arts Experience uses people’s homes in various townships around the country to show the work of local artists who are not able to showcase their work in traditional gallery spaces. This initiative affords local artists the opportunity to show their work either in their own homes or for their work to be hung in other people’s houses. Either way this is an innovative project that is facilitating meetings between artists, buyers and art lovers. We visit Alexandra to check out the art and witness how this initiative is changing the lives of artists, and to appreciate some of the township’s other cultural institutions.
The tour kicks off at our guide, Tebogo’s home on 3rd Avenue. The yard is a cluster of newer and older – and even older home structures, one of which is a house dating back to circa 1912 when Alexandra was established. The house stands as an example of the earliest home architecture in the township. This is the venue for the small exhibition mounted by the Maboneng Township Arts Experience of artworks by local Alex artists. Later in the day we will visit two of these artists at their homes and learn more about their processes and inspirations.
A street up on 2nd Avenue we visit King's Cinema, an out-of-service movie theatre dating back to 1968, but was rebuilt after it was bombed by apartheid forces in 1984. In addition to movie screenings, this important cultural landmark hosted performances by musicians such as Hugh Masekela and African Jazz Passions who spread the message of the injustices of Apartheid to the world through their music. Amadoda Anetshebe, a local acapella jazz group give us a taste of their offbeat sound before we move off to the first home gallery.
Tommy Mashaba's house is next on the agenda. At his home on 4th Avenue we view Alexandra township through the ages. His paintings depict the development of Alexandra from its days as a modest farm settlement, through the Bus Boycott of 1957 to what it looks like today. Each stage of the township's evolution is rendered with painstaking detail. The other half of his work focusses on daily life in the township and is testament to the artist’s love for Alexandra.
Just off 7th Avenue we visit Tumi, another artist at his home. He is a beautiful contradiction: an entrepreneur with his own gym for weightlifters in his backyard and an art studio he paints from. The man himself is statuesque and resembles a bodybuilder. His studio is a collection of works in progress and already completed canvases depicting everything from dreams and visions, meetings with foreign visitors, world icons, and abstract imagery.
Around the corner on 7th Avenue is Club Neh also known as Club Jazz or known by its longer name, Maloke B&B and Restaurant trading as Jazz Club. Here we settle down for a lunch of South African favourites, take in some jazz tunes and call it a day well spent.
1. Tommy’s home exhibition.
2. Thapelo’s home exhibition.
3. Nelson Mandela's backroom.
4. Tumi’s home exhibition.
5. Joe's butchery or Siphiwe's home for lunch.
Tour guide, home exhibition ticket fees & food.
Transport to and from the tour.