With her heart set on celebrating and educating excluded groups about the arts – among her broader goals– a Rhodes University student has launched an art gallery in her home village of Peddie.
Samkela Stamper, 35, made history when she opened an art gallery in the rural Eastern Cape town on June 21 to create a space for talented artists, who would otherwise have nowhere to showcase their work.
Stamper said the gallery, named after – and operating in her late grandmother Thandeka Stamper’s house – would also serve as a learning space where she would share her mosaic-making skills with the community.
With the Thandeka Stamper Art Gallery Samkela is fighting stereotypes and discrimination against pupils who display more artistic qualities than academic.
“There is no capacity building when it comes to arts in our rural and township schools and its [unfortunate] because we are not all academic. I was one of those kids who was not academically focused and I was made to feel bad at school and labelled as ‘not clever’ whereas, realistically, half of the kids in schools are not academic; they work with their hands but who’s going to see this and help them use it?” she said.
The fine arts student used a R10000 prize to start up the gallery. She won the prize at the Seedbeds Transformation Conference recently held in the Bay. The plan is to develop the space to accommodate anyone who needs an artistic space with WiFi and necessary facilities, to stay for as long as they want, Samkela said.
She and her team will source financial assistance through crowd-funding campaigns to make the vision become a reality.
“As much as I need the government’s involvement and assistance, I wanted to get this initiative on its feet and see how far I can go with it,” the former Port Elizabeth resident said.
The gallery, open daily, is run by community art enthusiast Nombuyiso Manjezi, along with other community members, with Samkela taking time off from studies to assist.
Samkela can be contacted on samkeyolande@gmail.com.