Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre is a center for arts and crafts, including

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

and

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

, in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It has been described as "the most famous indigenous art centre in South Africa".

History

Founded by the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden () is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.5 million members at year end 2023, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sweden, the largest List ...

Mission, Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre started producing weaving in 1965. It was originally intended to teach crafts such as weaving to female nurses who would then pass it down to their patients as a form of occupational therapy. The workshop's first Swedish directors were Ulla Gowenius (an artist and weaver) and her husband, Peder Gowenius (an

art teacher Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practic ...

), both graduates of

Konstfackskolan Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the eth ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. The first student to enroll in their classes was Allina Ndebele, who then went on to form her own weaving workshop and is now an internationally recognized artist. During the 1960s the three main production studios were established at

Rorke's Drift The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal E ...

(as it is known worldwide), and its staff continue to design and create tapestries and woven rugs, printed fabrics and stoneware ceramics to the present. The Pottery Workshop started in 1968 with Danish supervisors (first Peter Tybjerg, then later Ole and Anne Nielsen) with founding throwers Gordon Mbatha, Ephraim Ziqubu, Bhekisani Manyoni and Joel Sibisi. Already expert ceramists from the neighbouring Shiyane-Nqutu region, Dinah Molefe and several women of her family joined the Pottery Workshop from the start as skilled hand-builders, accustomed to using traditional Zulu and Sotho coiling methods in the making of domestic ''izinkamba'' (beer pots). The gendered work-division in the studio's ceramics —women coiling, men throwing— has been maintained to the present. Through his consultations as intergroup mediator in the late 1960s, H.W. van der Merwe was alerted to the presence of Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre in

and a need for assistance in its newly established Pottery Workshop. His wife Marietjie was an MFA (Ceramics) graduate of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and a practicing South African ceramist who was able to offer her support to the studio at

. Marietjie was appointed Advisor to the Pottery Workshop in 1971, and having designed and built a large oil-firing

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

in 1973, she continued to mentor the studio's ceramists and to help with technical problems until her death in 1992. In the era when

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

policies denied a formal education to black artists and crafters, under the Directorship of Jules and Ada van de Vijver, Rorkes Drift also established a Fine Art School. The van de Vijver's introduced printmaking, photography and weaving to the Center that produced some of southern Africa's most renowned artists and printmakers (for example Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Dan Rakgoathe, and Bongiwe Dhlomo). The authoritative publication about Rorke's Drift printmakers, most of whom were trained at its Fine Art School, was written by

Philippa Hobbs Philippa Hobbs is a South African art historian, artist, and art collector. She was born in 1955 and matriculated at St Andrew's School in 1972. She studied art at the Johannesburg College of Art before finishing a post-graduate printmaking course ...

and Elizabeth Rankin in 2003. A comprehensive article on the Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre is available at the South African History Online (SAHO)

Location

Rorke's Drift is also the location of the battlefield of the

Battle of Rorke's Drift The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal ...

(1879), a historic site in the

Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in present-day South Africa from January to early July 1879 between forces of the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Two famous battles of the war were the Zulu victory at Battle of Isandlwana, Isandlwana and th ...

where

British troops The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Gurkhas, 25,742 volunteer reserve personnel and 4,697 "other personnel", for a total of 108,4 ...

defeated a large Zulu army. The nearby battlefield is a major draw for tourists.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rorke's Drift Art And Craft Centre Handicrafts Arts organisations based in South Africa Textile arts organizations Crafts organizations Printmaking groups and organizations 1965 establishments in South Africa KwaZulu-Natal