Right Mukore carving a tree into a woman lifting a heart at Montebello Bibiloucapetown IMG 0893 ok

The Montebello Design Centre is a non-profit art and craft space established in 1993 and located in

Newlands Newlands may refer to: Places Australia * Newlands, Queensland, a locality in the Whitsunday Region New Zealand * Newlands, Wellington, a suburb of Wellington South Africa * Newlands, Cape Town, a suburb of Cape Town * Newlands, Johannesbur ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The centre hosts over twenty craft workshops, shops, restaurants, and artist studios.

History

Situated beneath Devil's Peak, the design centre stands in what was once a substantial tract of woods. Described on 6 May 1652 as a, "fine, large forest of very tall, straight growing trees" these lands were the hunting and grazing grounds of the

Khoisan Khoisan , or (), according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography, is a catch-all term for those indigenous peoples of Southern Africa who do not speak one of the Bantu languages, combining the (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the or ( in t ...

Cochoqua people. Remnants of these original forests can still be seen on the lower slopes of the mountain. The Dutch East India Company established the brewer Ruttgert Menssink on the site in 1696. By the late 19th century the area was an outlying suburb of Cape Town. After passing through several owners, Daniel Cloete built the existing homestead in about 1875 that later became the South African College School's Michaelis House. The adjacent face brick stables currently housing the Montebello Design Centre were built in about 1880. The complex is considered one of the finest of its period in South Africa. Cape Town brewer Anders Ohlsson purchased the estate from Cloete in 1888 and named it Montebello. Ohlsson, who established Ohlsson's Brewery on the site sometime after 1881. Montebello sits on the site of the brewery's stables which housed the horses that helped support the brewery's logistical operations. The site was sold to the

randlord Randlords were the capitalists who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa in its pioneer phase from the 1870s up to World War I. A small number of European financiers, largely of the same generation, gained control of th ...

Max Michaelis Sir Maximillian Michaelis, (11 May 1852 Eisfeld, Germany – 26 January 1932, Zurich) was a South African financier, mining magnate, benefactor and patron of the arts. Early life and education Michaelis received his early schooling in ...

in 1919 when automotives started replacing horse-drawn wagons. His son, the artist

Cecil Michaelis Maximilian Gustav Alfred Cecil Michaelis (born: 19 August 1913 - died: 3 May 1997), was an artist who also practised in glass and ceramics, and a philanthropist who encouraged crafts and design. He was the only son of Sir Max Michaelis, a South Af ...

, first experimented with South African clays and kaolin in the late 1940s.

Design centre

Prior to returning to South Africa, Cecil Michaelis' 1935 founding of Rycotewood College for the arts and skilled associated trades in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, United Kingdom, had convinced him an equivalent institution sited at Montebello would succeed in a country where much creative expression was still seen as derivative. First mooted in the 1950s, this ideal would take over thirty years to be realised. Following the

expropriation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of the main house and estate from the Michaelis family to house

South African College Schools The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands - part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of ...

the remaining stables were donated to

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

in 1988 on condition that a craft and design centre would be established on it. A further financial bequest by Cecil Michaelis allowed for the establishment of the Montebello Design Centre in 1993.

Notable residencies

* John Bauer, potter. *

David Krut David Krut is a noted art publisher and dealer with a focus on artists from South Africa. He is best known for his publication of the Taxi Art books and ''David Krut Projects''. Krut has played an influential role in promoting contemporary South ...

, art publisher and dealer.

References

{{Cape Town, education Cape Town Newlands, Cape Town Arts centres Arts organisations based in South Africa Entertainment venues in South Africa