ART LIFE
DR SAME MDLULI
STANDARD BANK GALLERY NEW GALLERY MANAGER By Eugene Yiga Editors Choice: First Published on Businesslive.co.za
Arts in Braamfontein in 2001. She completed a B-Tech in fine arts at the then Wits Technikon. “I then did a teacher training course in art and culture,” she says. “This allowed me to apply to schools as a teacher while practising as an artist. I was then offered a job as an arts administrator at the Goodman Gallery, which was opening a new Cape Town branch.” She returned to Johannesburg a year later to complete a master’s degree in arts and culture management with a focus on heritage studies. She also worked as a full-time art teacher at a primary school, which she describes as “one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever done, but also very demanding and at times stressful”.
Dynamism and experience: Botswanaborn artist, historian and writer Dr Same Mdluli has just been appointed as the new manager of the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. She has worked in other galleries and as an art teacher. “I have always loved being surrounded by beautiful things and initially wanted to study architecture,” she says.
This was followed by another job offer at the Goodman Gallery, this time in the Johannesburg branch. She later left the gallery to pursue a PhD in art history at Wits University, which she completed in 2015 and where she had been teaching as a sessional lecturer until her Standard Bank appointment. “The university can be a daunting space, especially if it is a foreign and unfamiliar system of learning,” she admits. “I learned how to be independent during this time and because I was studying a subject dominated by white students it meant being exceptional and not just meeting the requirements.”
“However, something about it seemed too restrictive, with too many rules. I opted for fine art as I thought I would be able to learn the same critical skills without the restrictions.”
Although she officially began her new duties on the second day of the year, the Standard Bank Gallery programme is planned at least 18 months ahead, which means that much of her day-to-day work at this stage involves planning future exhibitions and maintaining stakeholder relationships.
Born in Botswana and raised in the US (where one of her earliest memories is of a visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art as a child on an excursion with family friends), Mdluli matriculated from the National School of the
“Different people draw on different things depending on their backgrounds and their understanding of art,” she says. “Throughout my studies, I learned the skill of visual literacy and the language of art.
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