Museum hosted an exhibition launched on Saturday, 5 August 2017, to unveil the Emerging Arts Activist program (EAA), an art-based variant of Paulo Freire and Steve Bantu Biko’s revolutionary praxis.

According to Ms Farieda Nazier, Head of Department: Department of Jewellery Design and Manufacture, “the EAA model applies the original praxis criteria but extends the idea towards socio-political art processes and civic engagement. It achieves this by employing critical arts practices in order to elicit dialogue in South African youth,” She said.

This year the EAA theme was Aluta Continua: Protest and Resistance in a Historical Context, which focused on the Apartheid Museum’s collection as stimulus for the artworks.

“The workshop aimed to expose, unpack and instil a basic socio-political grounding in young activists, towards a transformational and reconciliatory end,” explained Ms Nazier.

“The workshop also resulted in a travelling exhibition which positioned the art works in the public domain, thereby providing a platform for the ideas and voices of these aspiring activists. The next exhibition will be hosted by the University of Johannesburg.

Ms Nazier pointed out that the idea was to respond to the existing works through the medium of photography and collage. “The works critically engaged with shared histories by relocating it within a new and current context – each individual thereby making sense and meaning of the significant moments represented by the archive.”

Ms Farieda Nazier, an artist, educator and researcher, co-ordinated the programme and facilitated the workshop alongside artist-activist Mocke Jansen van Veuren. “A very special thank you to our guest speakers Nelisiwe Xaba, Itumeleng Moabi and Lehohonolo Makhele, she said.

“The discussion was lively and the crowd was both diverse and highly engaged. It was a great event, and we hope to do more like it in the future,” concluded Nazier.

The exhibition is currently open for viewing from 5 August to 26 August at the Apartheid museum.