Creative Cape Town

Creative Cape Town asked Madeleine Barnard to put on her walking shoes, pack an Explore Creative Cape Town guide map and explore Cape Town. This is what she found.

As the recent influx of visitors to the Mother City proved, Cape Town is a top destination for holidaymakers. And it’s no surprise – considering what we have on offer. One of the most beautiful settings in the world, with a mountain that’s a finalist for the New Seven Wonders of the World competition, glorious beaches, an interesting, if fraught, history, friendly, laid-back locals, and, most of all, a creative buzz second to none in the world.

It’s also a city that locals need never stop exploring, because there’s always something new waiting around the next corner…
Once you start exploring Creative Cape Town, do three things. Get hold of a, Explore Creative Cape Town guide map, set aside a day or three, and strap on some comfortable shoes. Although the city is a very “walkable” one, you’re still going to be covering quite a distance. And get the attitude right – remember: you’re in one of the coolest cities in the world, and the motto is laid-back!

The Company Gardens is a good point of departure – from there you can get to our most important museums, the Slave Lodge and Long Street are just around the corner, and the Castle of Good Hope a few blocks away.

The Iziko South African Museum offers a grand variety of quintessential museum displays, including the history of the human race (“People Past to Present”), fossils, geology, reptiles, birds, mammals, our oceans, the planetarium and excellent temporary displays. Currently, a not-to-be-missed display features evolutionist Charles Darwin’s visit to the Cape between 31 May and 18 June 1836 – the people the young scientist met and what he saw here influenced his work and ultimately modern science. Then there’s “Subtle Thresholds – The Representational Taxonomies of Disease” by Fritha Langerman and the 2009 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

Just a stone’s throw from the Museum is the Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG), currently featuring excellent shows, the most mentionable being Dada South?, a brilliantly curated exhibition featuring work from the Dada movement of the early 20th century, and South African Dada by a variety of local artists. Then there’s a show featuring the work of Alexis Preller (1911 – 1975), and one on the life and times of South Africa’s four Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

Very close to SANG is the SA Jewish Museum and Cape Town Holocaust Centre, which illustrates the horror of the Jewish genocide.

At the bottom end of the Company Gardens, there’s the Iziko Slave Lodge, where South Africa’s shameful history of slavery is explored, and the people who suffered the tragedy and indignity of being enslaved, suitably honoured. A must-see at the moment is the Keiskamma Altarpiece, which forms part of the MAKE ART/STOP AIDS exhibition also on at the Castle. This striking piece of fabric art was made by 130 men and women of the Keiskamma Art Project in the Eastern Cape. Just behind the Slave Lodge, on Church Square, a plaque marks the spot where a tree stood where slaves were sold for many years.

See the rest of this travelling exhibition on HIV/AIDS at the Castle of Good Hope, South Africa’s first colonial building, constructed by Dutch authorities in 1666. The Castle is also a working military base, and except for all the interesting stories and museums, which include the William Fehr collection and the Military Museum, there’s also a military parade at 10 every day.

Walk a few blocks to the District Six Museum, which tells the story of the forced removals of various communities from the 1960’s onwards, especially the destruction of District Six, the most vibrant multi-cultural communities in apartheid-era South Africa. Ask Noor Ibrahim, who’s been working there for 17 years, to tell you the story of his racing pigeons.
In the area you can also visit the City Hall in Darling Street, the Grand Parade, the Drill Hall and The Granary, which is currently being restored.

Take a break and have a bite at one of Cape Town’s colourful eateries. There’s Biesmiellah in Bo-Kaap (after you’e been to the Bo-Kaap Museum), where you can sample traditional Cape Malay cooking, the Eastern Food Bazaar, with entrances in Longmarket and Darling Street, where you can choose from a variety of Eastern cooking and enjoy a serious helping for very reasonable price, and there’s funky Lola’s in Long Street, which echoes the essence of the street where it lives…

Ah, Long Street! What would Central Cape Town be without this vibey, pulsating core of coolness and culture? It has known various guises, from the place where serious antique collectors used to go – there’s still an antique arcade for those looking for a real find – and at night it used to be a shady lane where ladies of the night plied their trade. Today, it just, well, Cape Town, amplified. Funky clothing stores – try Darkie Clothing and MeMeMe – stand cheek-by-jowl to music stores pumping to the rhythm of Africa (try Loud on Long, Zula Sound Bar and The African Music Store), there’s the newly revamped NewSpace Theatre, there’s the legendary Clarke’s Bookshop, where Capetonians have been able to pick up rare as well as recent books since 1956. Did you know that the original owner once saved a rare Italian fresco from destruction during the Second World War? Ask them to tell you the story…
And there’s much, much more.

Cape Town has a variety of art galleries, theatres, more unusual and wonderful bookshops (you can’t afford to miss The Book Lounge, cnr Roeland and Buitenkant Streets) and other places well worth visiting (The Old Biscuit Mill, an old factory in Albert Road, Salt River, is the place to connect on a Saturday morning for coffee, art, homemade and home-grown food, pretty things and pretty people) and a plethora of glorious craft shops that not only sell the most beautiful work, but that also provide work to the previously unemployed (Streetwires in Shortmarket and Monkey Biz in Rose Lane, Bo-Kaap, deserve a mention).

There are actually too many to mention, so you best get yourself an Explore Creative Cape Town guide map (call Sue Martin on 021 4191881) and prepare your feet for some mileage. Discovering the cultural side of a city with so many wonderful stories to tell, is a not-to-be-missed experience!

*Creative Cape Town aims to ensure that the Central City becomes a leading centre for knowledge, innovation, creativity and cultural in Africa and the South. It is one of the programmes of the Cape Town Partnership.