Hasta La Ideas

While much of the Northern Hemisphere clenched its collective teeth through yet another week of bitter cold, the end of February was a rather multifaceted celebration of art and design in South Africa when Design Indaba, World Design Capital 2014 events, the Cape Town Art Fair, and the Guild Design Fair converged in Cape Town (surely not by coincidence, as 2014 also marks the 20th anniversary of the nation’s independence). The latter event was organized by the same folks behind Southern Guild, who made a strong showing at the very first Collective Design Fair last May, and like the NYC event, Guild skewed toward the Design Miami crowd. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—I wish I’d had more time to explore the eclectic offerings on view (not that the multi-building venue was that big anyhow).

Nacho Carbonell exhibition in the courtyard

Instead, I chanced upon an exhibitor whose mission is precisely to engage the Cape Town design community and public at large in a meaningful way. I recognized Daniel Charny immediately—I posted a video of his talk from Design Indaba 2013 just a few days prior—and he proudly gave me a tour of the Maker Library at Guild.

As its name suggests, it’s a variation on a makerspace, a community hub that serves as a library-like resource for designers even as it transcends the scope of a mere repository of information. Rather, the Maker Library is designed to be a workshop and studio as much as it is a gallery, and the ‘Librarian in Residence’—Heath Nash, in the case of Guild—is not only a knowledgeable administrator but a well-connected member of the local design community.

The Maker Library initiative finds its origins in the British Council, an organization is tasked with “educational opportunities and cultural relations” around the world. This year sees a focus on South Africa: As 2014 sees the nation enter its second decade of independence, so too is the first generation of “born-frees” on the cusp of adulthood, and an arts program called Connect ZA (sometimes styled as “Connect/ZA”; pronounced “Connect Zed-A,” per the local flavor) is intended to meet them halfway.

Although the exhibition closed on March 9 along with the rest of the Guild Design Fair, the British Council / ConnectZA have posted an open call for other Maker Libraries in South Africa; applications are due on April 4. Here is a selection of the work from the Maker Library at Guild, which Charny organized with V&A curator Jana Scholze:

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