Bridging differences with the Art of Africa
Museum veteran Christopher Till is leading the creation of the new Javett Art Centre, writes
WHAT do you do with decades of experience in running museums? Build a new one, of course.
Christopher Till has spent the past 40 years navigating the intersection between past, present and future. A former director of culture for the City of Johannesburg, Till is dedicated to preserving the then as much as he is to documenting the now.
Having previously steered the ship at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and the Johannesburg Art Gallery, he founded Johannesburg’s Arts Alive International Festival and is currently director of the Apartheid Museum.
Till is part of a team that is developing the Javett Art Centre, which will be housed at the University of Pretoria. Comprising three sections — museum, gallery and educational space — it is due to open by the end of next year.
The project was started by art collector Michael Javett, who had initially planned to loan his personal collection to an existing institution. But he was persuaded by the late Stephan Welz to start a new gallery and museum to house the works.
Till was approached to oversee the project, and is now serving in an advisory role.
“The Javett Art Centre is a contribution to the development of art in our country [and will] also provide a place where [Javett’s] collection can reside,” Till says.
A total of about 60 works (the collection is still being assembled, but will include art by Gerard Sekoto, Stanley Pinker and William Kentridge) will be on loan to the centre for 20 years.
Javett’s family foundation has directly funded several charities and organisations including Kids Haven and the Sparrow Schools.
In addition to the Javett collection, the art centre will also be the new home of the Mapungubwe Archaeological Collection, which is housed at the University of Pretoria. It comprises 174 artefacts from the 12thcentury kingdom: a ceramic collection, a bead collection and a metal collection, including the well-known golden rhino statuette.
The new art centre will be situated on both sides of the busy Lynnwood Road. A pedestrian bridge that crosses the road and links Tuks’s main and secondary campuses will be turned into a gallery that will house temporary exhibitions.
“It’s a bridge metaphorically speaking and it’s also a bridge practically speaking. It’s about linking town and gown so that the public, the university and the students will be able to communicate physically and intellectually,” Till said.
One of the key components of the Javett Art Centre will be teaching art students the practical aspects of how to preserve heritage pieces. After all, what’s the point of having a museum if the pieces it is meant to protect and display begin to show signs of decay and deterioration?
“If you look at what’s happening in many of our museums, there is no conservation taking place,” said Till. “There are collections that are under threat, where the resources haven’t been applied, and in this country there’s no expertise in many instances to undertake that kind of work.”
What are Till’s hopes for the new art centre?
“What I would like . . . is to create something which really looks at the art of Africa. And I’ve used that terminology specifically — I’m not saying ‘African art’, because you then think of a specific area or genre.
“I’m talking about the art of Africa: what takes place within Africa, under the description of art, art-making and CHART THE FUTURE: Christopher Till is head of the Apartheid Museum COMING SOON: An artist’s impression of the Javett Art Centre, due to open in Pretoria late next year creativity.”
The art of Africa has long been a focus of Till’s work, since he began his career in the late 1970s after completing art school.
He did his MA thesis on African art and got a job straight out of university at what is now the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 1977.
He was hired as a curator but because the museum’s director was often absent, Till stepped into that role too.
When Zimbabwe gained independence, Till was officially appointed museum director.
“So from very early on I just went into operating museums,” he chuckled.
“I’ve been steeped in working within the environment of art in Africa, and when I was at the Johannesburg Art Gallery we introduced traditional African art into the gallery.
“One of the exhibitions I did was called The Neglected Tradition, [which] looked at modern South African art. So it’s not as though it’s a brand-new thought that’s come floating by. It’s been there, but I believe this is an opportunity to completely reinforce that.”
He believes that housing the new institution at a university will make for a dynamic conversation between the old and the new, the establishment and the up-and-comers.
Till is aware of art’s role in society and how it’s about more than just creating works that command attention.
“Artists don’t just sit there as some completely isolated group of people. They are completely immersed in society. They are completely immersed, as we are, in events of what’s going on,” he said.
“But they have a particular way of commenting on that through whatever form it might be, whether it is literature or it is drama or it is visual arts. It’s a comment and it’s raising people’s awareness of issues.
“I think that’s a strength of art and it’s a strength of artists as commentators.”
Till is also building a museum at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site at Howick, KwaZulu-Natal.
“I see museums, and spaces like museums, as vital in being the movie house of [what happens in society]. You can’t chart the future if you have little idea of the past.
“Right now the Apartheid Museum is again more relevant than when it was opened 15 years ago, because there’s a new generation that has moved beyond the 1994 ‘magic moment’,” he said.
“They’re questioning and that’s an important thing to be able to engage with . . . I feel privileged to have worked in institutions where I’ve been able to expand the canvas. I’ve been able to expand the physical spaces and places where that kind of thing can happen.”
Artists are immersed, as we are, in events . . . but have a particular way of commenting The Apartheid Museum is more relevant than when it was opened 15 years ago