An exhibition with a small selection of artworks from Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection was curated to serve as inspiration for the annual Free State Young Artists Award Competition. The National Museum, Bloemfontein is hosting this competition, with the theme ‘Restoring damaged ecosystems’.
Image credit: The pump station at the foot of Naval Hill
People living in towns and cities take running water and taps for granted. But did you know that till the end of the 19th century, Bloemfontein had no running water?
Anole lizards of the genus 𝘈𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘴 are a diverse group of lizards found in the warmer regions of the Americas. Several species have evolved an unusual defence mechanism.
When threatened, the lizards jump into a nearby stream, diving down and remaining submerged until the threat has passed. A recent publication (Boccia 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. 2021) demonstrated that these lizards demonstrate a very unusual technique to stay submerged for up to 18 minutes at a time. They “re-breathe” their air underwater in a manner reminiscent of SCUBA re-breathing equipment.
Free State artists benefitted from the Public Arts Programme called Towards a People’s Culture, managed by Oliewenhuis Art Museum. The artists received stipends for two months and participated in creating murals at selected sites in the Free State.
Anyone who’s raised a child or a pet will know just how fast and how steady their growth seems to be. You leave for a few days on a work trip and when you come home the child seems to have grown 10cm! That’s all well and good for the modern household, but how did dinosaurs grow up? Did they, too, surprise their parents with their non-stop growth?