It’s not too late to celebrate International Museum Week
JOBURG - Commemorate the preservation of history and culture by visiting a museum near you.
With International Museum Week (12 to 18 May) behind us, we take a look at interesting museums that you can still go and explore with your family.
The Roodepoort Museum captures and showcases Roodepoort before, during and after it became a mining camp which later added to the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand. A farmhouse that dates back to the mid-1800s and an early Victorian house are on display inside the museum. Art lovers will also fall in love with the museum as it has a large collection of international decorative art objects.
The Roodepoort Museum is located inside the Civic Centre on Christiaan de Wet Road in Florida. Details: 011 761 0225.
Another interesting site is the Apartheid Museum which opened its doors for the first time in November 2001.
The museum was constructed in conjunction with a team of filmmakers, historians, designers, architects and curators that have created an experience unlike any other. An overload of audio/visual displays take one through the apartheid era. If you know of someone that lived through that era, take them along and ask them to bring along an old passbook or photographs, as the museum encourages people to leave behind their own historical artefacts.
The Apartheid Museum is located on the the corner of Northern Park Way and Gold Reef Road. Details: 011 309 4700.
One of Johannesburg’s biggest history and cultural museums is based inside the old fruit and vegetable market in Newtown — Museum Africa. The museum has a large collection of objects, paintings and photographs that tell the story of South Africans since 1935. One of the main stands is a display of the 1956 treason trial which saw Nelson Mandela and 155 other people imprisoned at the Johannesburg Fort. The museum also hosts the Bensusan Museum of Photography inside the same building, and it would not have existed without Dr Arthur David Bensusan, who played a big role in promoting photography in the country in the early 1900s. The work of various South African photographers have been preserved at the museum.
Museum Africa is located at 121 Bree Street in Newtown. Details: 011 833 5624.
The South African National War Museum, better known as the Ditsong National Museum of Military History, was opened in 1947 by Prime Minister Jan Smuts to commemorate and preserve the history of South Africa’s involvement in the Second World War. If you are a fan of military history, then the National War Museum is definitely worth a visit.
The South African National War Museum is located on 22 Erlswold Way in Saxonwold. Details: 011 646 5256.
