In his job as an art facilitator, coordinator and curriculum writer at Lalela, a not-for-profit organisation, Simamkele Sitwebile, 31, develops, coordinates and facilitates art-making workshops for under-resourced schools in Cape Town. “My role is to use art’s inherent properties as a tool for social cohesion and criticality among grade four to 11 learners from schools without art,” he says. He is especially proud of the of 2023 holiday workshops he developed and facilitated at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town, titled A Gaze from Within. The eight-day Lalela high school programme, and the subsequent group exhibition, was a response to the museum’s When We See Us, an exhibition exploring self-definition of the black body. Lalela learners who took part showed their work at the 2024 Cape Town Art Fair and seven out of 14 artworks were sold. Another of standout achievement for Simamkele was the Zeitz MOCAA’s Centre for Art Education initiative, where students from various schools and backgrounds participated in workshops and an exhibition. He says he is driven to excel ”to prove to myself, my childhood community and my students that it is possible to surmount the odds of growing up in poverty”.
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I am proud of a series of 2023 holiday workshops I developed and facilitated at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, titled A Gaze from Within. This was an eight-day Lalela high school programme, and a subsequent group exhibition, intended as a response to the museum’s When We See Us, a monumental exhibition exploring self-definition of the black body within the African continent and diaspora; outside of colonial and Western interventions.
Lalela high school students from that programme showed their artworks at the 2024 Cape Town Art Fair. Seven out of 14 sold to private art collectors. That was an affirming gauge of the work I have done with them.
Another project I am pleased with is my involvement in the Zeitz MOCAA’s Centre for Art Education initiative called MOCAA Art Club. Students from various schools and backgrounds participated in a series of art-making workshops that culminated into a co-curated exhibition titled SITE, Through the Eyes of a Dozen. The objective was to create an equal platform for understanding through art literacy, discourse and criticality among learners from low-fee and well-resourced schools.
Those modest achievements have taught me that empowering a child’s mind and ability is the best way to prepare them for the world.
During my first year in university I was assigned a student mentor, whose name is Clayton van Niel. He taught me that contextual empathy, thoroughness and care in anything that I do will yield excellence and that constant exploration is a large part of any process. I am also inspired by visual artists such as Athi Patra-Ruga, Jacolby Satterwhite and Kara Walker — whose art praxes inspect their identities through the lens of our collective present and past. Their critical eye inspires me to inspect issues from their core.