Join a public tour, programmed throughout the year – some one offs, others repeated. These have a loyal, local following but are open to all.
Contact kate@cultureconnectsa.com for more.
COMING UP summary of public programme
AUG - Vergelegen 6 Aug, William Grant 10 Aug Zoom, Cape Town Art Walk 17 Aug SEPT - Salt River Street Art 3 & 23 Sept, Green Point Park 6 Sept, Dylan Lewis 10 & 16 Sept, Suzani 17 Sept OCT - Salt River Street Art 19 Oct, Stellenberg 22 Oct Nov - Salt River...
Salt River Street Art 3 & 23 Sept, 19 & 23 Oct, 17 & 26 Nov, 14 Dec
Enjoy walking in this small neighbourhood built for railway and other workers in the late 1800s. The striking, yet varied murals, were mostly created during five annual International Public Art Festivals; even during last year's with COVID there were artists from...
Vergelegen Gardens Sat 30 July and 6 Aug
This Culture Connect tour is led by Alistair Tite who has propagated hundreds of Vergelegen Wine Estate's much-fêted camellias. (Alistair lives almost next door). The earliest camellias at Vergelegen were classic, pre-1940s Camellia japonica. In 2010, with over 1 000...
W H Grant’s Buildings Wed 10 Aug Zoom
Prolific architect William (Billy) Grant (1879 – 1957) is best known for his impressive Art Deco office facades in central Cape Town. But his work is much broader than this. Bo-Kaap based town planner, Tommy Brümmer has set himself the task of finding as many of...
Art Walk Cape Town Wed 17 Aug
Cape Town's Public Art Festival was based in the city centre for the first time this year. The theme was humanity. Selected artists were from Belgium, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Spain and South Africa. The murals are mainly on Commercial St (between Buitenkant St and...
Green Point Urban Park Tues 6 Sept
A new tour for Culture Connect, Green Point Urban Park, sometimes just called Green Point Common. Clare Burgess will lead our tour. She is a landscape architect, Treekeepers co-founder, university lecturer and artist. (Clare leads our popular Company's Garden and...
Dylan Lewis sculpture garden Sat 10 & 16 Sept
Internationally acclaimed sculptor Dylan Lewis's Sculpture Garden never fails to disappoint, whatever your artistic taste. Many say this garden is his best work to date, it is certainly his largest. The setting is stunning - it is very close to Stellenbosch but you...
Suzani Manina Baumann At Home Sat 17 Sept
''Ardent fabric collector, Suzani expert" (House and Leisure, Sept 2021), Manina Baumann, will host a tea exclusively for Culture Connect in her beautiful home and Suzani gallery, in City Bowl - Higgovale. Manina has been importing and supporting Suzani embroidery art...
Stellenberg Gardens Sat 22 Oct with owner
A beautifully designed and looked after private garden, with 16 different 'rooms' all with their own identity but with a feeling of serenity, grace and charm. It is hard to believe you are in the heart of the southern suburbs, especially with the original Cape Dutch...
Fayruza Abrahams – Cape Malay contemporary cuisine – meal (and/or demo) Bo-Kaap home (private bookings only)
In Fayruza Abrahams' wonderful, welcoming home which has been in her family for generations, she'll share her culinary flare and tips, with a classic Cape Malay meal enhanced with her special, new healthy touches. She talks about the different aspects to this very...
Dinner with art doyen and cook extraordinaire, Penny Dobbie, in her Victorian Cape Town home (date you decide)
Art collector and dealer, Penny Dobbie, hosts and cooks a delicious, freshly made feast in her period Victorian home, with its stunning views over city bowl to Table Mountain. Penny has lived here for over 50 years. She continues to develop both the house and garden...
Premier’s residence, Leewenholf new exhibitions about slavery, date tbc
Our first visit to the Premier of the Western Cape, Leeuwenhof, on Saturday 7 May was a great success - Premier Alan Winde joined us at the end. We can't promise this again but we'll be back with Mirjam Asmal-Dik, Director of Association For Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery...
National Library – special collections, date tbc
114 medieval manuscripts and 119 incunabula (books printed pre 1500) to recent press images from the Cape Times, the National Library is a treasure trove. Right next to Company's Garden in Cape Town's centre, it is South Africa's oldest public institution. Its users...
La Motte art – new winter date coming soon
A last chance to see fabulous exhibition of contemporary tapestries which is due to close in July, Threads of Synergy. Artists include the South African "greats", such as Kentridge, Skotnes and Hodgins, made by the Stephens Tapestry Studio in Diepsloot (Joburg) and...
West Coast Fossil Park with director founder Pippa Haarhoff and architect Jo Noero, date tbc
After our 14 May 2022 tour of this inspiring, beautiful and different centre at the West Coast Fossil Park we will be organising another. The area is world renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved five million years old fossil and faunal remains. We will be...
Castle of Good Hope History (& Slave Heritage Museum) Sept likely 2022
Lots of fascinating facts and stories for Jeanne Bonnema’s enjoyable tour inside South Africa’s oldest building, the Castle of Good Hope completed 1666. History comes alive, and what it was like in the early days of the settlement here, through to an anti-apartheid...
Ellerman House art (Brut and canapes) date tbc
An exceptional opportunity to see this comprehensive South African art collection, usually inaccessible to the public. The art is beautifully placed around the hotel, garden and gallery. It feels like being in a home, with art every where, including the pantry! Their...
Arderne Gardens Trees book privately
Landscape architect, university lecturer and TreeKeepers chair, Clare Burgess leads our walking tour of Arderne Gardens - a small public gem of a park off Main Rd, in Claremont (almost Kenilworth). It is a Provincial Heritage Site with its collection of nationally...
101 tour Zeitz MOCAA art and architecture date tbc
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is establishing itself a world player in contemporary art, despite being only five years old. It can be intimidating and some of its art challenging. We start outside with the striking architecture, then once inside head for the...
Art Deco Cape Town date tbc or book your own
Outstanding examples of "moderne" architecture in Cape Town's centre - Wale St, Greenmarket Square, Darling Street and St George's Mall. Our tour starts at the pink apartment block Holyrood, 80 Queen Victoria St. We finish at the impressive former headquarters of Old...
Harbour History your own date
Cape Town's Waterfront is full of fascinating history; some painful - prisons, torture and good-byes; others uplifting - the excitement of the weekly mail ship and the buzz of the harbour. For this tour, Lesley Cox leads us on a carefully planned route, to hidden...
History Cape Town – autumn (or own date)
First Nations to democracy: three centuries of stories about the shaping of the Cape Town as we know it. You'll have your eyes opened, even if you know the city centre well. We start at Fideli's cafe, Parliament St, next to Groote Kerk, opposite statue for Jan...
Company’s Garden Trees – date tbc or your own
Lots of fascinating facts and beautiful trees in Cape Town's first cultivated land of note, initially fruit and veg for the Dutch East India Company sailors in 1652, then a botanical pleasure garden during the British Victorian era and a now a popular park in the...
Stellenbosch University & Rupert Museums, date tbc
Curator led tours of two outstanding collections - similar but different in many ways. Feedback from last time (9 Feb 2022), the first one: Apart from the depth of knowledge of both curators, we also enjoyed their interesting back stories and snippets on the various...
Woodstock street art date to be fixed
Woodstock native, artist and family man, Shaheed Haroun (pictured) is our guide for our Woodstock graffiti and street art walking tour. He has been hosting tours for six years with Juma Mkwela who has been running tours in Woodstock for over a decade, and in...
Boschendal’s manor house and werfs’ hidden history, 2022 date tbc
Our tour is led by Tracey Randle, heritage consultant and archivist, who was employed by Boschendal 2017 - 2018 to find out about the farm's rich and diverse cultural heritage, in particular the people who lived and worked there. What do the shape of the buildings and...
Flowers West Coast day or three nights, own dates 2022
Hugely knowledgeable about plants and a very experienced guide, Alistair Tite leads either one day or three day trips. With all the rain, it is a fantastic flower season. Alistair leads Culture Connect's popular camellia tours at Vergelegen. Before guiding, he was a...
Art Supper Phillippa Duncan’s Wynberg home date tbc
A wonderful, relaxed evening surrounded by art - just for eight people, including Phillippa and myself. Phillippa's cottage, is packed with ever changing art, design and craft. It is inspirational yet down to earth and beautiful. She will share how she researches and...
Spier Wine Farm’s Art Outside & In tbc or own date
Jessica Rensburg's highlight tour of the unparalleled South African contemporary art at Spier Wine Farm, just over 30 mins drive from Cape Town. Jessica is the art registrar for the Spier Arts Trust so she knows the collection exceedingly well and was actively...
Eastside – beautiful buildings to bulldozers D6, date tbc
Hipster Harrington St was once a posh part of town. Many of the old buildings have gone, like the church pictured. But c1834 Granite Lodge remains - aptly now SAHRA's home (South African Heritage Resources Agency). We'll pop in to see their small display during our...
Muratie’s heritage, wine and lunch with owner Dr Rijk Melck, date tbc
Chuffed that owner and brilliant story teller, Dr Rijk Melk, will be hosting us at his family home and farm. It was one of the first areas developed here for agriculture - Simon van del Stel wanted the land to be used to grow grain - not grapes! The first 'owner' in...
Goodman Gallery’s and Aspire – tour and drinks, date tbc
Art Quarters - our new series starts on Thurs (10 Feb) 5:30pm at 37A Somerset Road, De Waterkant, in the former cloisters, nuns' accommodation and offices which Wolff Architects beautifully "converted" to gallery spaces, cafe (Cucina) and offices, which opened last...
Bree Creativity – artist studio, maker/retailer spaces – ask for a date
Join me (Kate Crane Briggs) for an inspiring morning walking in a creative corner of Cape Town. We start with meeting young, modest but successful, Pierre Vermeulen in his spacious studio - an industrial office space with a large windows and mountain view. This visit...
East Central Creativity – Labotessa, Pierre Fouche, Spier Arts Trust, A4 and 24/7 – ask for a date
A really special opportunity to visit contemporary artists, artists and art in situ, in a really small group (seven max). Get together a group of mates/family and give me a shout when you would like to do it (weekday mornings/lunch time best). Start at the beautifully...