The National Museum celebrated International Museum Day with a LGBTQI virtual exhibition. The theme for 2020 is: Equality: Diversity and Inclusion.

About the Exhibition

We have asked ourselves what it meant to be an inclusive museum today.  How can the National Museum Bloemfontein with its own history of colonialism, segregation, apartheid, homophobia and exclusion become meaningfully inclusive? How can we recalibrate what we do – from collecting to exhibition making to educational programming – so that it reflects the multiplicity of our histories and make audible the diversity of South African voices ?

Oliewenhuis has chosen an artwork entitled the Blind Alphabet A to celebrate International Museum Day. The 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬 is 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘂𝗺𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Blind Alphabet A, is a collection of 94 identically pedestalled and boxed artworks, inspired by words starting with the letter a, and forms part of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection.  A selection of these artworks is always on display on the first floor of the Main Building at Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

While gender balance in the field of archaeology is very gradually changing today, males dominated the composition of the field in the past. In honour of International Museum Day, National Museum archeologist, Dr Will Archer has profiled three of the women that made major contributions, and shaped the way archaeologists conduct African Stone Age research today.

“The Corona #3 is the only psychiatrist I would ever submit to”

Ernest Hemingway

In 1868, a patent was issued to Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule for their invention of a typewriter, a machine that was to revolutionise office work and also do much to undermine handwriting as a craft.

Many years ago it would have been (almost) unheard of for a woman to pursue a career in the study of herpetology (reptiles and amphibians), or to even hold a degree issued by a university for that matter. Fortunately, times have changed, and in general we as a society accept that women (or any other gender) can do anything they choose to do, with few or no preconceived biases.