Christmas Greetings

Dear Friends of the Keiskamma Trust

 

At the end of a week of mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela, we have also rededicated ourselves to carrying on his vision of equality, freedom and forgiveness in all our efforts in the villages of the Eastern Cape where there is  still so much to be done!

 

We would also like to thank you for your support of our work, and to share with you our latest annual report so that you can have a look at what we have achieved in the last year, with your partnership and solidarity (click here). 

 

If you are excited about what we are doing, we encourage you to help us continue our work in 2014 by making a donation to us on our GivenGain site: www.keiskammatrust.givengain.org.

 

As a special thank you, all who give gifts to us over R3,000 rand will receive a hand-printed Keiskamma Art Project Lino-cut, hot off the presses.  Donors  of over R10,000 will receive a set of 4 limited edition prints.

 

With sincere thanks to all of you, and with our best wishes for the Christmas holidays,

 

The Keiskamma Trust 

Christmas Concert in Hamburg

Christmas shopping

Where to find us in Cape Town?

Kalk Bay Modern, 1st Floor Olympia Buildings 136 Main Road, Kalk Bay

Wire and textile plants and fish, botanicals, embroidered portraits, collaborative work with Deborah Doering

Africa Nova, 71 Waterkant Street, De Waterkant

Wire and textile plants, Embroidered angel pictures

The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, Cape Town

Botanicals

SA Print Gallery,109 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town

Linocuts made in collaboration with the Kuru Art Project in Botswana

IS Art Gallery at le Quartier Francais, 16 Huguenot Str Franschhoek

Wire and textile plants, tapestries, linocuts made in collaboration with the Kuru Art Project in Botwana, embroidered angel pictures, journals, bags and teddies

Provenance Auction House, 6 Vrede Street, Cape Town, are auctioning online larger embroidered Maps of Africa, other smaller tapestries and wire and felt fish and sea urchin etc in their "Maritime Auction" , and will auction angels and other pieces in their" Christmas Auction" mid December.

For more information, contact Cathy: +27 79 425 3226

Tribute to Madiba

Keiskamma Trust joined the mourning nation and the rest of the world by observing a moment of silence and a holding a service of remembrance on Friday last week to mark the passing of our former and first democratically elected president - Dr Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.    
With gratitude Keiskamma Trust would like to pay our last respects to this remarkable father of the nation and the  greatest statesman Africa has ever produced. We find ourselves torn between celebrating his life and legacy and our grief at his passing. In one of his many words of wisdom he once said "I stand before you not as a prophet but as a servant of you the people" 
That's how we would like to honour and remember him  by emulating the values he stood for - values of humanity, forgiveness and self-sacrificing service to all.

Illustration: 
Cushion cover by Keiskamma Art Project for Mum's (http://www.kotiprojekti.fi/)
Artists: Ndileka and Nosiselo

New display in our Hamburg shop!

Cebo Mvubu and Sino Makhubalo doing final touch ups on our Christmas display in Hamburg.

Celebrating Bell

Keiskamma Music Academy has expanded music teaching to another village. 

Tuwa Primary School is located in the village of Bell, just before highway R72, 14 km from Hamburg, where we have been teaching for 7 years now.  There, Keiskamma Music Academy volunteers and staff have begun a new teaching initiative for the benefit of Tuwa Primary School students.  

This new teaching initiative, and the expansion of Keiskamma Music Academy’s youth development efforts began when Mr. Mali, the former head teacher of Tuwa Primary together with the parent body, reached out, requesting musical education for its learners.  

Keiskamma Music Academy volunteers Martin Kratzing and Val Arnold joined Music Programme Manager Anthony Drake to give weekly music lessons.  Instruction in recorder and basic musicianship began in September 2013.  The music team began by teaching all eighteen primary school students as a group.  
Since the end of October, lesson are now taught in smaller groups.  

The youngest students so far are in Grade 4; the oldest are in Grade 6.  In little time, students at Tuwa Primary School have already developed a good understanding of rhythm and some basic musical repertoire.

The Last Supper Table

The idea of this Table is make a table of remembrance for the trees and forest of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It is a prayer for restoration and healing of our forests.This table was made by Garvey McConnell, a resident cabinet maker and barista of Hamburg, and the bowls were turned by wood artist Derek Wentworth, also a Hamburg resident. The wood used was largely found pieces, or wood from pruning local trees. The middle piece of the table is Petrocarpus soyauxii, African Padauk, a Central African forest tree. The piece was found on Hamburg beach. The embroideries on the table runners were designed by Cebo Mvubu and Nokuphiwa Gedze and embroidered by Nozibele Nxadi, Nokuphiwa Gedze, Lumka Macingwana and Cebo Mvubu.

First Excel training course completed at Vulindlela Centre

Another group of high school students has “graduated” from the computer training provided at the Vulindlela ICT Youth Resource Centre in Hamburg.  This is the first group to have also learnt MS Excel – in the past the training consisted of an Introduction to Computers, MS Word and Internet.  Thanks to the Sustainable Seas Trust providing training and materials to our trainers (Nokuphumla Nameka and Siyanda Paliso) we are now able to offer Excel as well.  This training is provided free to young people in the community as there are no facilities at the local schools.  With a good basic training in IT skills local youth and young adults are now able to access opportunities that were previously unavailable to them – including on-line application to institutions for further learning once they complete their schooling.

New kiddies furniture for Eva Centre

The number of children attending the Education Programme crèche at the Eva Centre in Lover's Twist has increased so much  that we were struggling to accommodate the young children comfortably.  Thanks to Starfish we have now been able to buy new tables and extra chairs for the “little ones”.   There are currently 52 between the ages of   1 and 4  attending this Early Childhood Development centre, where they are provided with meals and take part in stimulating activities in preparation for their entry into the local Zanethemba Primary School.  Group artworks on the floor are fun – but better on a nice clean bright table!

Cape Town Art Fair - It was a success!!

New Wire & Textile Catalogue

Click here to view our sculptures!

Madiba Day

In July our OVC centre in Mgababa, the Bjorn Centre, celebrated Madiba Day with the staff from Fish River Sun. This turned out to be a community affair as we had elderly members of the community and the local primary school closed to attend the celebration. The kids helped with the planting of seedlings in the centre’s garden. There was a huge cake which managed to feed  all 349 people who were there. We received a lot of gifts bought with the proceeds of a golf fundraiser held by the Fish River Sun (see pictures).  The Bjorn Centre and Keiskamma Education Programme thank the Fish River Sun for their continuing to join us on Madiba Day each year and for their thoughtfulness and generosity in donating so much useful equipment to us. 

The Difference Loom - Exhibition featuring Keiskamma Guernica, curated by Winnie Sze - Photo gallery

 All the artists in front of Keiskamma Guernica

 Nozeti and Cebo with Greatmore artists

 Nozeti with Winnie Sze and Carol Kaufman

Embroidery workshop by Keiskamma artists at Greatmore Studio :

Iziko South African Museums, photos Carina Beyer

Kirstenbosch Biennale 2013 - Well done to Eddie Jange and the wire & textile scuptures team!

Photo gallery:

Photos by Derek Wentworth