VISITORS to Phansi Museum in Esther Roberts Road are now able to enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and browse through the beautiful traditional art and crafts on sale at the museum’s craft shop.
Director, Sharon Crampton, said the idea behind starting the shop came after international tourists who had visited the museum suggested they would like to take something home with them after their tour.
“We have so many international visitors and school tours, and people told us they would like to be able to browse items to buy in a shop at the museum. We thought this was a viable project and now after tourists have viewed the museum with our tour guide, Phumzile Nkosi, she takes them up to the shop to buy items,” said Sharon.
The shop supports local artists who sell their art and crafts to earn an income.
“Crafter, Hlengi Dube, does training with young artists, and we take in the items they produce as we want to support these artists. We also sell some items which have been on exhibition at the museum as well as work by ceramic artists and a few of the original artifacts from the museum. We are creating an open market for them. A lot of them battle to market their work as there are not a lot of places they can take it to sell. Tourists as well as people coming off the ships in the Port are buying the items. There are also small items like bracelets which are popular with children on school tours who want to take something small home with them,” said Sharon.
Sharon said visitors can buy work by Ntombi Nala, who creates ceramic traditional Zulu pots, painted plates created by artist, Sibusiso Duma, and the shop also supports projects such as Woza Moya Ixopo, which provides stuffed monkeys and lions to the shop and the Mapula Project from Mpumalanga, which creates textiles.
The Phansi Museum’s popular calendar is also sold at the shop.
Sharon said the museum is not licenced to sell food, however there is a lounge area where visitors can buy a cup of tea or coffee to enjoy after the tours.
Visit the Phansi Museum at 500 Esther Roberts Road. Hours are 8am to 4pm week days, and 10am to 2pm on Saturdays.
Contact 031 206 2889.
