Outreach - A South African art gallery’s response to a changing world by David Robbins

The William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG) in Kimberley is South Africa’s smallest nationally funded gallery. It is also the country’s most dynamic and innovative in terms of its response to the changing socio-political terrain in which it has operated during its 60-year life. From its origins as a typical colonial repository of imported culture, WHAG now holds one of the finest collections of the diverse streams of South African art. It also runs unique projects which have transformed the gallery from an isolated cultural enclave into the nerve centre for thriving outreach in the most desolate and marginalised – and starkly beautiful – region of the country’s hinterland.

The story of this pioneering institution is told through the experiences of a team from the gallery as it journeys thousands of kilometres across the Northern Cape in search of what might constitute the significance of art in human development, and in the lives of frequently impoverished contemporary communities. This quest for possible answers sheds important light on the role and rationale of an art gallery, and of the arts in general, in a changed and changing South Africa.

About the Author:

David Robbins has received numerous awards for his writing, beginning with a CNA Literary Award in 1986 and culminating twenty-four years later with a Lifetime Achievement Literary Award supported by the South African Department of Arts and Culture. He is widely regarded as a writer of significant insight and ability. He began publishing in 1985. His books include travel and short fiction, as well as some biography, history and socio-political analysis.