Culture

Major African art museum to open in Cape Town

16 Sep, 2017

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa to open on 22 September.

The much-anticipated Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa will open to the public at the V&A Waterfront on 22 September, making Cape Town home to the largest collection of contemporary African art on the continent.

British designer Thomas Heatherwick has transformed the museum's site, a 157-m high grain silo building dating from 1921, into a futuristic vision, carving out unusual holes and spaces while maintaining the authenticity of the original design.

Described by the 47-year-old London designer as "the world's tubiest building", the museum comprises 80 galleries, a rooftop sculpture garden, art and conservation areas, a bookshop, restaurant and bar, and reading rooms.

The building's bulging glass-panneled windows reflect light into the museum's central atrium and the 116 vertical tubular spaces.

Named after the German entrepeneur and art collector Jochen Zeitz who provided the museum’s extensive founding collection, the nine-floor building is housed at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, whose development project contributed about $50 million towards the scheme.

Zeitz is the former chairman of the sportswear company Puma, as well as a noted philanthropist and serious collector of contemporary art by artists from Africa and the African diaspora. In addition to underwriting the museum’s running costs, Zeitz provided a "substantial" acquisition budget.

For full details of the museum see website.