South Africa's premier art museum houses outstanding collections of South African, African, British, French, Dutch and Flemish art. Selections from the Permanent Collection regularly change to enable the museum to have a full programme of temporary exhibitions of paintings, works on paper, photography, sculpture, beadwork, textiles and architecture. They provide insight into the extraordinary range of aesthetic production in this country, the African continent and further afield. This programme is complemented by a range of temporary visiting exhibitions. Iziko Museums of South Africa operates 11 national museums in Cape Town. It is one of the premier cultural institutions in South Africa. The museums house natural history, social history and art collections in magnificent, historic buildings which in themselves are national treasures. IZIKO is an isiXhosa word, meaning ‘hearth’, traditionally and symbolically the social centre of the home; a place associated with warmth, kinship and ancestral spirits. Here food is prepared and shared, stories are told and knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. Iziko Museums seeks to emulate this by creating receptive spaces for cultural interaction and dialogue. We are proud to ignite connections between our shared history, our heritage and each other. Iziko embodies the spirit of a transformed institution and our vision of ‘African Museums of Excellence’, a place for all South Africans to gather, nourish body and soul and share stories, where knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. Iziko celebrates our heritage whilst generating new cultural legacies for a society that has moved beyond the shackles of the past. The three ‘flames’ in our ‘hearth’ logo represent the three collections brought together in our 11 museums: Social History (ochre); Art (red); and Natural History (green). Our collections are made accessible to learners and the public through education, public programmes and exhibitions. While we have many permanent exhibitions, we regularly create and host temporary exhibitions so that the public can enjoy the more than one million items in our collections. We also arrange travelling exhibitions to other cities while playing host to travelling exhibitions from other local and international museums. A visit to any of our following 11 museums will take you on a magical journey of African heritage: Bertram House Bo-Kaap Museum Groot Constantia Manor House Koopmans-de Wet House Maritime Centre Michaelis Collection at the Old Town House Rust en Vreugd Slave Lodge and Social History Centre South African Museum and Planetarium South African National Gallery and Annexe William Fehr Collection at the Castle of Good Hope

Elsewhere: