Oliewenhuis April opening
The Oliewenhuis Art Museum announced 'Àṣẹ́: Grounded in Being, Rising in Thought' opening on April 16, a show the social coverage says was curated with input from young guides including Letlhogonolo Potsanyane. (x.com) The announcement appeared in social feeds within the last 48 hours as part of regional exhibition previews. (x.com)
Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein will open “Àṣẹ́: Grounded in Being, Rising in Thought” at 18:00 on Thursday, April 16, with the show running through June 16 in the museum’s Reservoir gallery. (art.co.za) The exhibition was curated by Oliewenhuis’s current Art Museum Guides, and the museum’s staff page lists Letlhogonolo Potsanyane among those guides. A walkabout is scheduled for Friday, April 17, at 11:00. (art.co.za) (nationalmuseum.co.za) A March 3 National Museum Publications press release described Àṣẹ́ as a Yoruba philosophical and spiritual principle tied to “the vital life force” and said the show is organized around five interconnected themes. The release said those themes link paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures to questions of human experience, technology and social change. (nationalmuseumpublications.co.za) The opening adds a new temporary exhibition to a museum that serves as the Free State’s only art museum of its kind and a satellite of the National Museum in Bloemfontein. Oliewenhuis says its mission includes developing human resources in arts and culture and supporting regional artists. (sahistory.org.za) (nationalmuseum.co.za) That mission helps explain why the guides are central here. The museum says it actively participates in the artistic life of the Free State Province and commissions work from young artists with an emphasis on regional talent. (nationalmuseum.co.za) Oliewenhuis itself occupies a much older building than the exhibition it is about to host. The Neo-Dutch mansion was designed in 1935, completed in 1941, and opened as an art museum on October 11, 1989, after serving as an official residence for governors-general and later state presidents. (nationalmuseum.co.za) (sahistory.org.za) For visitors, the museum lists free admission to the main building, exhibitions and gardens at 16 Harry Smith Street in Bloemfontein. Visiting hours are 08:00 to 17:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 16:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with parking charged at R10 per vehicle in cash. (nationalmuseum.co.za) The immediate next date is April 16, when a curator-led idea about life force, form and contemporary practice moves from preview posts into a public opening in the Reservoir. (art.co.za) (nationalmuseumpublications.co.za)
