From the Director's desk
Brendan Bell at his desk
You will notice we have extended both the KwaZulu-Natal Women Artists and the Heath Family Retrospective exhibitions. A gap in our Schreiner Gallery programme gives us the opportunity to keep the compact but beautiful women's exhibition on for longer. The Heath exhibition is so grand and refreshingly different in the Lorna Ferguson Room that we cannot resist leaving the display intact for longer. This also gives us the chance to plan new exhibitions from the permanent collection in most of the upstairs display areas.
Recent acquisitions exhibitions are an opportunity for us to show what has been acquired for the permanent collection and to indicate why certain choices were made. Growing the permanent collection is not a haphazard activity. A number of issues need to be considered, such as how a particular work will enhance the general collecting policy, does it fill a gap identified in the overall collecting scheme, and is it a fine, representative example of the artist's work?
The University of KwaZulu-Natal's Alumni ceramics exhibition is long overdue. The ceramics department located on the Pietermaritzburg campus has a long and distinguished history, and has produced many highly acclaimed South African ceramists. Linking the show with an international ceramics conference can only enhance the visibility of quality contemporary work produced in South Africa.
The Northern KwaZulu-Natal Craft exhibition curated by Judy Jordan is also important. For the first time we have a comprehensive display of traditional and contemporary craft produced in a specific area of the province. The show is the first in a series and is a project of the Natal Arts Trust, which aims to assist public art collections of KwaZulu-Natal acquire works for their permanent collections and to promote understanding and appreciation of art produced in this region of the country. Work is already underway for Jabulisa 2010. This major exhibition of contemporary art and craft from KwaZulu-Natal will coincide with the Soccer World Cup next year.
FOTAG's Fabulous Picture Show (which includes three-dimensional works) is not to be missed. The fact that artworks are small doesn't mean they are wanting in quality. A huge bonus is that everything is already mounted and framed - just bid, buy and take home. Even better, take home straight away!
Not having to change exhibitions as frequently means we can deal with other work which tends to be neglected. Sorting out artwork storage is one of these. Storage space for the permanent collection not on display is always an issue. Space is at a premium despite two new stores having been created in the past year. Safe storage of two-dimensional artworks on screens and three-dimensional artworks on shelves has to be carefully managed.
We set up a new documentation and research room a while ago, and it has become a dumping ground because we simply haven't allowed time to sort it out properly. Documentation of artworks in the permanent collection is a vital aspect of the museum's functioning and we need to clear the backlog as quickly as possible. So, yet again there is plenty to keep us occupied over the next four months!
Brendan Bell