Kathlehong Collaboration
In September 2018, I collaborated with Artist Proof Studio, Swiss photographer Flurina Rothenberger, and the Kathlehong community to develop community art resources in Kathlehong. Kathlehong is a township east of Johannesburg, a community built around historically allocated land for Black people in South Africa during Apartheid era segregation. Flurina Rothenberger was developing content for Nice Magazine as part of a Pro Helvetia Residency and I served as a community arts liaison for the project. Part of the project was creating a space for the arts in Kathlehong, and a local resident named Sechaba had donated his empty garage for this purpose. Sechaba’s parents were murdered in this house during the apartheid riots and he wanted the space to have a new life of hope and healing for the community. The garage lacked a workable space so we first built a custom-designed foldable table. Coordinating with Artist Proof Studio, I secured funding, eight art students, and materials to actualize Sechaba’s goal of getting art into his community. The APS students learned the value of community arts outreach as a supplement to their fine arts education. I designed two workshops for Kathlehong: a collaging workshop themed around the meaning of money and success and a screenprinting workshop. Fifty community members participated in the collage workshop and the collages were featured as pullout pieces in Nice Magazine. For the screen-printing workshop, I facilitated teaching APS students and participants how to efficiently screenprint and the potential for a business using screenprinting skills. We printed 450 t-shirts and 150 tote bags in an afternoon. Using four different designs, everyone had a chance to print and all participants received a free t-shirt or canvas tote bag. In the end, Sechaba was so inspired by the community arts work that he enrolled himself as a student at Artist Proof Studio. He now holds workshops once a week based on the screenprinting workshop model. He and a friend are attending classes at Artist Proof Studio and his garage has become a hub for creativity.
