Making artful use of retired containers

SAFMARINE has added its support to a bold new venture in the winelands of the Western Cape just outside Stellenbosch that will showcase the talents of South African artistic talent in a gallery constructed of retired containers. A joint venture with Spier Contemporary 2007, hosted by the Africa Centre, the ‘Stellenbosch project’ is dedicated to art in many forms – painting, photography, sculpture, wood carving, metalwork, poetry, song and dance, pottery and the like. Safmarine has donated 81, 20-and 40-foot containers which form the accommodation for the exhibition, which will eventually go on tour to Johannesburg and Durban after its Cape debut. Artists chosen to show their work qualify for a R3 000 fee, over and above which they get to keep the proceeds from the sale of their creations. Safmarine was the first company to buy a work of art destined for showing. The line’s social responsibility initiative has seen more than 8 000 containers converted by previously disadvantaged communities into classrooms, libraries, crèches and after-care facilities.