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REGIONAL THUPELO WORKSHOP REPORT 12 - 20 October 2002
The sixth regional Thupelo Workshop was held in the South African National Gallery Annexe, between the 12th and 20th October 2002. The workshop was small with 14 artists, all of whom are working in the vicinity of Cape Town. The workshop enabled the artists to work with other artists from the same city, overcoming some of the feelings of isolation and segregation that artists can experience in Cape Town as well as providing the opportunity to experiment and learn different creative techniques through working in a shared space. The workshop was made possible through the generous funding of the Association of Visual Arts and the South African National Gallery who provided the venue free of charge.
2001 - Thupelo Cape Town - International Workshop
Goedgedacht Centre - Malmesbury - 29 October - 9 November
An intensive, creative environment was provided in which artists developed not only within their art but also within themselves as a whole. The workshop took on an energy completely unique to the group of artists attending. It was a very hard and intensive learning experience for all involved, especially within the organization and committee structures where we had placed very young and enthusiastic individuals into serious positions of responsibility within the workshop.
2001 - Thupelo Cape Town - Regional Workshop
What is being seen and what is happening around the artists, is almost absorbed and the participant’s individual interpretation becomes a part of the workshop itself. The emphasis lies in this creative process during the ten days, rather than to producing finished work for the open day exhibition on the final day.2000 Thupelo Cape Town - International
The workshop took place at Goedgedacht Conference Centre near Malmesbury: 19th - 30th October. “All basic materials were provided… the farm provided many, varied and inspirational bits and pieces of materials ranging from old iron beds to clay. Thus an intensive, creative environment was provided in which artists could develop and find new avenues of expression through the exchange of ideas and techniques. Artists found this helpful in gaining confidence to experiment and grow”. (Alex Mamacos, Report in Thupelo 2000 Yearbook)
1998 Thupelo - Regional
The Thupelo workshop took place over a ten day period from 24th October - November 1st at the annexe of the South African National Gallery and was attended by eighteen local artists. Eight artists, amongst those invited to join the workshop, gave their apologies, being unable to attend for various reasons. The annexe provided an ideal space for an interactive creative workshop environment and the staff at the gallery were wonderful, giving their full support at all times. An open day was held at the end of the workshop and was well attended. Several local gallery owners came to the viewing and were able to offer new opportunities to workshop artists whose work had not been widely exhibited before.
1996 Thupelo - Cape Town
The workshop took place at St John’s Conference Centre, below Table Mountain
Comments:
“A Thupelo International workshop is a unique experience. Artists come from various countries, each one with its own culture, each with a different personality and different expectations. What they have in common, however, is a love for art making and a willingness to travel thousands of kilometres to share their experiences, to meet challenges presented, to learn from one another and so enrich their art and their lives. This year was, therefore, no exception”. (Lionel Davis, Review of Thupelo 1996, Yearbook)
“The opportunity for dialogue/cultural exchange and cross fertilization of attitudes and approaches to professional art practice was rich and intensely rewarding - already a catalyst for further international collaboration”. (David Jones, participant, 1996, comment in Yearbook)
“The Thupelo workshop provided an opportunity for artists to interact and coexist in a totally different psychic and social space, which must ultimately influence and enrich their work and way of thinking”. (Sarie Steenkamp, participant, 1996, comment in Yearbook)
“Thupelo Cape Town is not a school - it is a place for peers to exchange experience, ideas and energies. The Workshop started its magic and when presented the final selection on open day we were all well nourished” (Jill Trappler, Review of Thupelo 1996, Yearbook)
1995 Thupelo - Cape Town
21st January - 5th February
“What a great break it has been for me to experience fresh creative ideas. Learning by experience has opened new exciting avenues in my artistic innovations”. (Paul Sibidi Thupelo Yearbook 1995)
“I have gained a lot of experience through working with artists from other parts of the world, I wish such workshops to be an ongoing process”. (Wiseman Zane, Thupelo Yearbook 1995)
“This workshop included artists from the USA, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There is a struggle for power and resources. For Thupelo, as for us all, this must be a time of reassessment of re-evaluation. The challenges are great. The gaps among participants in this workshop - in terms of experience, education, place of origin - are far greater than in the earlier workshops, necessitating, I believe, outside mediation, criticism and selection. The principle of teaching by example - which is what Thupelo means - need not be sacrificed. On the contrary, Thupelo is poised to play a role in the transformation of our cultural context, and in the liberation of our imaginations”. (Marilyn Martin, Thupelo Yearbook, 1995)
1991 Thupelo - Johannesburg
“I found South Africa a stimulating place in which to make art. It was refreshing to find artists working in an expressive manner that was free from the academic influences that seem to direct many ‘first world’ artists. It was equally refreshing to find a society that recognised the value of people expressing their inner experience”. (Andrew Sloan, Guest Artist, Thupelo 1991)
Thupelo - Cape Town
In 1990, the Cape Town branch of Thupelo was initiated that had its own organising committee/Working Group. It is at the Thupelo workshops in Cape Town that many more international artists were able to attend, rather than focusing on one Guest Artist. Regional workshops took place annually, which were held in the National Gallery in Cape Town, and worked with other local non-governmental organisations such as CAP (Community Arts Project) in developing arts initiatives.
1990 Thupelo - Johannesburg
The workshop took place at the Alpha Training Centre, Broederstroom from the 26th August - 9th September. “The work produced from the workshop whose scale is often seen as being against the proportion of township match box houses has been dismissed as abstract and therefore not relevant to the situation in the country.
I find this argument itself even more abstract since nobody has the right to decide creative experience on narrow political confines” (David Koloane, opening address of the Thupelo exhibition 1990)Thupelo - Johannesburg: Other Projects
Regional workshops were started in 1990, after it was decided that regions should have a greater degree of autonomy in fund raising and organising their own programmes. Regional representatives for Natal and the Cape came into being: Lionel Davis for the Cape based in Cape Town, and Thami Jali for Natal, based in Durban. While the central office for Thupelo remained in Johannesburg and covered regional Thupelo projects in the Transvaal region. In June 1990, Natal organised the first regional Thupelo workshop at the Natal Technikon
1989 Thupelo - Johannesburg
The workshop took place at The Alpha Training Centre, Broederstroom.
1988 Thupelo - Johannesburg
The workshop took place at The Africana Museum, in Johannesburg
1987 Thupelo - Johannesburg
The workshop took place at the Johannesburg Art Foundation, in Johannesburg.
A questionnaire was circulated among the 1987 participants concerning their feelings and opinions about Thupelo, the overwhelming response was that the workshop was welcomed by all participants. “It was seen and accepted as a forum where artists can meet, work together and discuss matters of common interests on a national level. Thupelo’s main thrust is that of adopting a non-racial character with the affirmative action towards those artists disadvantaged by apartheid."
1986 Thupelo - Johannesburg
The workshop took place at Broederstroom: Alpha Training Centre
Comments:
“With abstract art, South African art…can for the first time become major. South Africa is being offered a place in the development of painting and sculpture. It only needs to continue in it’s present track and it will produce a real movement. It will become like one of those centres for abstraction like New York, Edmonton or Toronto…Given the overcrowding, desperate poverty and terror that exists in the townships it is incredible that a sophisticated, ambitious abstract art should be coming from there. An art that is wholly life affirming and that doesn’t indulge in self-pity.” (Extract from Moffett’s Art Letter by Kenworth Moffett Ph.D Harvard, guest artist at Thupelo 1986).
1985 Thupelo - Johannesburg
This workshop took place at Rustenburg: Hunter’s Rest