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University of Pretoria Museums

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🏛 Official UP Museums
📌 @universityofpretoria Hatfield Campus
🎨 UP Museums Manage, interpret, Conserve & Curate a diversity of Collections & Archives

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21 days ago

Last chance for Pretoria viewing.

Irma Stern Exhibition: The Return of the Arab Priest at the UP Museums.

The exhibition closes tomorrow, Friday, 11 September 2026. taken in University of Pretoria Museum by @upmuseums

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22 days ago

🎨 The Arab Priest Returns Home

This Heritage Month, SAHRA celebrates the return of The Arab Priest, one of Irma Stern’s most significant works. More than a painting, it is part of South Africa’s living heritage, protected to ensure that present and future generations can continue to access, engage with, and learn from it.

The artwork is currently on display at the University of Pretoria Museums, where visitors have an opportunity to experience it firsthand until Friday, 11 September 2026.

Thereafter, The Arab Priest will travel to Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, where it will form part of a new exhibition. Further information on the Iziko display will be shared soon.

Heritage protection only truly matters when people engage with it. Take this opportunity to visit, reflect, and connect with a remarkable piece of South Africa’s cultural legacy.

#ProtectingOurHeritage #HeritageForAll #UniversityOfPretoriaMuseums #IzikoMuseums #SouthAfricanHeritage by @upmuseums

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Building Emotional Connections with Rhinos Through Poetry – Insights into the CollabFund project Co-MammalHub by Dr. Annie Antonites and Dr. Nicola Grobler.

Co-MammalHub (CMH) returned in April with a rhino-themed line-up of talks, poetry readings and poetry workshops in Pretoria. Dr. Annie Antonites and Dr. Nicola Grobler share insights into a project that encourages people to rethink their relationships with endangered animals through innovative science-art public engagement activities.

💬 “We have come to realize through the CMH events that the greatest impact comes from the co-creation process itself, rather than its outcomes. CMH does not simply facilitate a one-directional exchange; instead, it fosters mutual learning and unexpected outcomes.”

🔗 Read the full article: themuseumslab.org/stories/connections-with-rhinos

🔗 Get an overview of the project: themuseumslab.org/co-mammal-hub

Project team:

→ Alumni: Dr. Annie Antonites  ·  Anita Hermannstädter  ·  Lydia Nafula

→ Cooperation Partners: Brandon Kilbourne  @brandon_kilbourne_poetry ·  Dr. Nicola Grobler @nicola_grobler_artist   ·  Wycliffe Oloo Omondi

→ Involved Museums: Ditsong National Museum of Natural History @ditsongmuseumssa   ·  Nairobi National Museum @nairobinationalmuseum   ·   Museum für Naturkunde Berlin @mfnberlin   ·  University of Pretoria @upmuseums

Co-MammalHub is one of the selected projects of the initiative by #TheMuseumsLab CollabFund, which is funded by @kulturstiftungdesbundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation).
#CollabFund #kulturstiftungdesbundes
#CoMammalHub by @upmuseums

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a month ago

MBR PROJECTS is honored to announce that ‘Untitled’ (1962) by Gladys Mgudlandlu has been placed in the University of Pretoria Museums Permanent Art Collection.

Gladys Mgudlandlu (1917–1979) is often recognised as the first woman of colour in South Africa to exhibit her work to a multiracial audience during the period of grand apartheid. Just how and why this came about is a political narrative rarely told.

Gladys Mgudlandlu took up painting in early childhood in the Eastern Cape and was taught how to paint murals in the Mfengu tradition, using the ochre, red, blue and white clays of the Eastern Cape. The Mfengu, as early Xhosa Christian converts, developed a unique and hybrid set of traditions during the 19th century, many of which Mgudlandlu would reflect upon in her later paintings.

Mgudlandlu’s art career, due to a tragic set of circumstances, was painfully cut short, spanning from her first exhibition at the Liberal Party’s Contact offices in 1961 to 1971, after which a car accident led to injuries that stopped her from painting.

#GladysMgudlandlu #UniversityOfPretoriaMuseums
#SouthAfricanModernism #MBRPROJECTS

Public Collections:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Durban Art Museum; Sanlam Collection, Bellville; University of Fort Hare, Alice; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha; Mpumalanga Legislature, Nelspruit, the Standard Bank Corporate Collection, Johannesburg and now the University of Pretoria Museums Permanent Art Collection.

About the University of Pretoria Museums:

The University of Pretoria Museums curate a vast twentieth-century and contemporary South African fine art collection, acquired from as early as 1922 through purchase, gift, bequest, or donation. In 1957, the University Council constituted a Committee for Exhibitions and Collections and later, in 1974, allocated annual budgets for actively acquiring art. By 1979, a new committee, the Art Committee, was formed solely to purchase artworks to enhance the institutional art collection. Historically and in the prese taken in Pretoria, South Africa by @upmuseums

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The University of Pretoria (UP) Museums invites you to a seminar examining the materiality of Irma Stern’s Arab Priest within an integrated art-historical and conservation framework. The seminar considers the artist’s handling of paint, surface construction, support, and the complex layered structure of the oil painting as fundamental to both its expressive force and interpretive depth. Please join us for an in-depth and insightful talk by the Museum’s Art Conservator, Sandra Markgraaf, exploring how meaning is constructed not only on the painted surface but also through the concealed, often-overlooked material evidence embedded within the artwork itself.

Date: 25 August 2026

Time: 12:30 to 14:00

Venue: Merensky 2 Library, Level 3 Auditorium, Department of Library Services

Parking: Hatfield Campus, Engineering 3 Parkade (access via one-time PIN)

Email: museums@up.ac.za / WhatsApp: +27 68 236 4808

Tel: +27 12 420 5181. 012 420 3553

RSVP: RSVP by 20 August 2026

BIOGRAPHY: Sandra Markgraaf:
Sandra is a Pretoria-based paintings conservator who currently serves part–time as the museum art conservator at the University of Pretoria and also manages a private conservation practice. She was selected by the Netherlands-based Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg as one of only sixteen conservators worldwide to participate in a pilot virtual workshop on the advanced ‘mist-lining’ technique for the conservation of canvas paintings. She also collaborated on a technical study of the material analysis of a significant artwork in the University’s collection, conducted by the University of Pretoria Heritage Conservation Programme and Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. She holds a Master’s degree in Museum Science and a Diploma in Conservation, and served as the art conservator and curator for 13 years at the DITSONG National Museum of Cultural History. Sandra specialises in the conservation of paintings and is responsible for the preservation and remedial conservation of the University of Pretoria’s extensive art collection. by @upmuseums

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This Mandela Day ,the UP Campus Tours team came together to honour Madiba’s legacy of service ,unity and compassion with a “67 Minute Heritage Walk “ around the Hatfield Campus of UP.Through these small acts of kindness and a shared commitment to making a positive impact ,we continue to celebrate the values that inspire our university community .Together we can make everyday a day of service 🌏☘️. #MandelaDay. #UPCampusTours. #67Minutes #Community Impact by @upmuseums

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2 months ago

Our Nelson Mandela Heritage Walk was a huge success! 🧡

A heartfelt thank you to every student who joined us and participated. Your presence, energy, and willingness to be part of this initiative made the day truly meaningful.

This wasn’t just a walk. It was a journey of remembrance, reflection, and learning. Together, we honoured Nelson Mandela’s legacy by revisiting our shared history, celebrating the values he stood for, and reminding ourselves that each of us has a role to play in building a better future.

Thank you for walking with purpose and making this event one to remember. Until the next one🧡🫵🏾
#7daysformandela @up_rag @upcampustours @heritagebuzz_sa @upmuseums by @upmuseums

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