ELC Arts & Crafts Centre Exhibition Hall Dedication

Yesterday the ELC Art and Craft Centre dedicated their newly reconstructed Exhibition Hall. The funds to complete this reconstruction were donated by the Federal Republic of Germany. The Deputy Ambassador Ingo Herbert was on hand for the dedication ceremony that was led by Bishop Buthelezi of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The Art & Craft Centre was established in 1962 by Swedish artists Ulla and Peder Gowenius, who were employed by the Church of Swedish Mission. A Fine Art School was included in the activities and during its 20 years of existence many students from all over of Southern Africa have attended of which many have won national and international acclaim.Rorke's Drift has been the home of worlds famous artists like John Muafangejo, Azaria Mbatha, Bongi Dlomo, Pat Mautla and others and today we are proud to have such recognised artists and crafters like the weavers Philda Majozi, Emma Dammann, in the ceramic studio like Gordon Mbatha, Joel Sibisi, Elizabeth Mbatha.

The ELC Art and Craft Centre has gone through many changes during its existence and they have had rough times and good times. The general feeling among the artists who work at the ELC Art and Craft Centre was that they were now starting to see the bad times disappearing and the good times coming back. Most of this good fortune can be ascribed to the dedicated work of Christiane Voith who is the Centre Manager. Christiane arrived here about 3 years ago from Germany and has been working unstintingly with great enthusiasm to try to re-establish the Centre's good reputation in the art world and to bring back some prosperity to the artists of the ELC Art and Craft Centre.

For more information on the ELC Centre you can visit their website on the following link: http://www.centre-rorkesdrift.com/

For more information on Christiane's works at the centre you can visit her blog page on the following link: http://www.puul.de/