Explore art and history on Museum Night

The second instalment of this popular initiative is just days away, writes BIANCA COLEMAN

MUSEUM Night Cape Town is back for its second instalment on Thursday, when you’ll be able to explore all the museums in the city in a new light – after dark.

It’s a free event, with a curated programme of food, music and performances until late. Museum Night was initiated last year by Thursdays Projects, the team behind First Thursdays Cape Town and Joburg, which have become monthly calendar highlights.

Participating museums and cultural sites are Iziko South African National Gallery, District Six Museum, Iziko South African Museum and Planetarium, Iziko BoKaap Museum, South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town Holocaust Centre, New Church Museum, Iziko Slave Lodge, Slave Church Museum, Iziko Koopmans De Wet House, Martin Melck House, Prestwich Memorial and Iziko Rust en Vreugd (which will be a VIP venue).

The National Gallery in the Company’s Garden houses collections of South African, African, British, French, Dutch and Flemish art. Symbols of South African Cultures – in collaboration with the South African Post Office’s Philately Services – is a permanent exhibition of commemorative stamps depicting local cultural artifacts as captured by local photographer Hein Botha.

“Studio” brings the notion of the artist’s workspace as a centre of creativity into the heart of the art museum. An active workspace for young people that complements a display curated from the holdings of the Iziko Art Collections department forms the basis of this initiative.

Iziko Koopmans De Wet House in Strand Street is furnished as a home for a well-to-do Cape family during the late 18th century. It houses some of the best pieces of Cape furniture and silver in the country, in addition to a priceless collection of ceramics. It opened its doors as a museum in 1914, after the deaths of its last private owners, Marie Koopmans-de Wet and her sister Margaritha.

In Long Street, the Slave Church Museum depicts the history of missionary work in South Africa. The South African Missionary Society was formed by a Reverend Vos in 1799 in an effort to convert slaves to Christianity and this inconspicuous structure in Long Street was built in 1804 as the first official slave church in the country.

The District Six Museum in Buitenkant Street was established in December 1994. It works with the memories of the District Six experience and with those of forced removals more generally. Digging Deeper is a permanent exhibition, while Shaping A Shared World is a collaborative arts, design and technology students’ exhibition between Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

These are just a few examples of the diversity of our city’s history and what can be explored at some of the museums.

Taking in all this culture builds an appetite; food trucks will be parked in the Paddocks area of the Company’s Garden and on Church Square and there will be food stalls at the Bo-Kaap Museum. Some of the museums will have cash bars and, of course, there are all the restaurants and watering holes in the city itself, which have made First Thursdays popular festive nights.

“Museum Night Cape Town is an annual event, but we plan to develop and grow the programme year on year. There are plans for other editions in specific areas within the year, but nothing has been confirmed yet,” said Michael Tymbios, from Thursday Projects.

● Museum Night begins at 6pm on Thursday, and ends at 10pm. For programme details, sign up at: www.museum-night.co.za.