Fountain House (South Africa) held its Annual Art and Craft Exhibition, “Off The Wall”, at St George’s Grammar School on the 31st of October.
“Off The Wall” showcases the work of artists and crafters who have psychiatric disabilities and who live in the Cape Town area. On display was a variety of art and craft, including drawings, paintings, sculpture, jewellery, pewter and graphic design.
The artists themselves are involved in the organising of the event and select and present their work in a professional manner, reflecting the ethos of Fountain House.
Our artists for 2012: Marco Sojola, Elizabeth Wood, Jonathan Smith, Noer Gallant, Chenaix de Klerk, Richard Lawrence, Louise Bowley. We had a few new faces join the team of artists and crafters this year these were; Nolene Palmer, Terrance Adams, Nizaar Edries, Siyaybonga Basela and Gavin Felaar. A special thanks to the artists who exhibited this year. Without you there would be no art exhibition.
Our artists do art because they love to and it’s what keeps them going. This year our artists have been struggling to produce work due to financial constraints. But these constraints have spurred on some enormous amounts of creativity in some. We’ve seen a host of new work being created from recyclable materials. For example, plated mats made from material off cuts, recycled frames created from driftwood found on beaches and more.
As always our raffle was another big income maker. There were a lot of really great prizes to be won. There were dinner vouchers from A Touch of Madness, The Wild Fig Restaurant, a massage voucher from The Light and Healing Centre, a Funix Espresso machine, Welcome to Cape Town Gift bags and R200 Spur Voucher. All prizes were donated and again we say thank you to you for your loyal support.
Special mention must be made to our donors who made this event possible as their donations helped keep our expenses low; Jan Solomons for the donation of wines, Matthew at Peninsula Beverages who donated the bottled waters, Umberto from Pick n Pay for the sandwich platter and Stephen and the St Georges Grammar School for the use of their venue. HUGE thanks also to Reinhard (our regular German donor) from the Sczech Foundation who supported the event with a monitory contribution!!
To Michael Terrblanche who is always willing to help us hang and set up the venue, we are extremely grateful for your skill and your willingness to use it toward the planning and execution of this event.
Fountain House is still struggling to increase public participation in the event and more of the artists’ work needs to be sold. This event is one of our major fundraisers within the programme and we would like to see it grow. Not only for the us as a fundraiser but also for our service-users who work so diligently in getting their work up to standard and ready for display.
“Off The Wall” is an interesting look into the hearts and minds of artists with psychiatric disabilities and should not be missed next year. We look forward to next year and we hope for bigger and better things.
Suzanne Solomons
Rehab Worker and Event Coordinator