<div dir="ltr">My apologies for being so late to send through my thanks for the invitation to share with this wonderful group.<div><br></div><div>This past month we postponed a ceremony to award William Kentridge a joint honorary doctorate conferred by the University of the Western Cape and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. The postponement comes in the wake of a symposium, which preceded the lockdown, to discuss Kentridge's exhibition at the Zeitz Mocca Museum of Contemporary African Art and Norval Foundation. William himself shared his plans for the Centre for the Less Good Idea. The work produced for Season 7 is now available on the Centre's website. I would encourage you to follow the centre's recorded offerings.</div><div><br></div><div>We are frantically preparing for the onset of the spread of the Coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a nation-wide lockdown in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, and a massive effort and citizenship drive to safeguard large sections of the population who live in dire conditions. That said, there is a major initiative called Iam4theArts to mobilise support for artists whose livelihoods would be adversely affected by the lockdown which has garnered the support of 9000 artists across the length and breadth of South Africa.</div><div><br></div><div>Closer to home, I continue to work with architects on a building project that will house a Laboratory of Kinetic Objects in partnership with the Handspring Puppet Company, a documentary film school, an artists in residence programme, a schooi of African guitar, and a project on Communicating the Humanities. The refurbishment of an old derelict school on the edge of the city will be the first opportunity for the historically Black university to engage with the arts communities in and around Cape Town. In the coming weeks, I hope to share some of the thinking around the art interventions planned for the new facility and to learn from you about how we might set to work on crafting an aesthetic education for our times.</div><div><br></div><div>Premesh</div><div><br></div><div><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px">Premesh Lalu (Prof.)<br></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px">DST/NRF Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px">Centre for Humanities Research<br>Faculty of Arts<br>University of the Western Cape</div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px"><br>Private Bag X 17<br>Bellville<br>7535<br>Cape Town<br>(021) 959 3162<br>0716767806<br><br></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-size:12.8px"><a href="http://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/" target="_blank">http://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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