Consider what it would be like to have a university with no collections or archives. Most visitors that engage with university museums often see less than 10% of the institution’s collections. In fact, less than 1% is on public display – and that is without considering archival materials that rarely make their way into museums. Without university museums, the story of a higher education institution’s past, present and future simply would not exist.

University museums have a shared history with their parent institution. Internally, the University of Pretoria (UP) Museums support the UP community with academic research programmes, such as hosting internships, while externally, they fulfil a socially responsible role of providing access to the University’s collections. The social responsibility of university museums is a concept that is emerging in response to calls for accessibility, inclusivity, diversity and equality.

University museums are not about collections, but about people. They provide sustainable contributions to the heritage, art and cultural sector, and therefore have an impact on society. Both museums and universities are social institutions created to serve civic society holistically. As art, curatorial and conservation ambassadors to the University, the UP Museums continue to be creative, flexible, adaptive and inclusive to diverse audiences. They contribute to the cultural and natural landscapes as well as the “research-scapes” of UP.

The UP Museums, which are located at the junction of Tukkie Lane on Hatfield Campus, hold collections, archives and galleries that are significant for the African continent and the world. Curating and conserving the collective memory of the institution is indeed an honoured social responsibility. The collections that the UP Museums curate were created more than 110 years ago, and are some of the institution’s finest historical and contemporary collections. Their eight gallery spaces contain signature South African art, ceramics and sculptures. They also house the world-renowned Mapungubwe Collection and the new Mapungubwe Archive. These major collections are not found at any other university in South Africa – nor on the continent for that matter.

Over recent years, the UP Museums have creatively developed and successfully implemented several key projects, despite their small staff cohort. Using the pandemic to leverage opportunities, they contributed to UP’s efforts in the wider arts and cultural sector. One highlight is a meandering art sculpture route around the beautiful landscape of Hatfield Campus (as part of the educational Art Beyond Walls programme). The Museums are also part of the global museum community on the Google Arts & Culture platform, where more than 700 works and five exhibitions are available online.

In 2019, the UP Museums launched the curation and design of the National Treasures Exhibition of the Mapungubwe Gold Collection at the Javett Art Centre at UP. The Corobrik ceramic art collection was installed as a current temporary exhibition, in partnership with Corobrik, Ceramics Southern Africa and the City of Tshwane’s Pretoria Art Museum. The art conservation room was also expanded and enhanced to aid in the conservation of paintings in the University’s art collection. In addition, a new Mapungubwe gallery devoted to the single bead is underway, including master planning to exhibit the art collection.

On a more institutional level, the UP Museums have founded the first GLAM (Galleries/Gardens, Libraries, Archives and Museums) initiative in association with UP alumni. This is a South African first as well, as the UP Museums are the first SA partner of the international committee for university museums and collections (UMAC). The GLAM initiative hopes to explore the value and impact of the relationship of university museums to their universities.

University museums will always serve as institutional places of memory of both the past and present. But to maintain momentum and remain sustainable, they need to be reimagined; they also need to keep an eye on the future and the past. Museums are not only historically significant and focused on education, but have evolved into multi-purpose knowledge hubs – not just for the preservation of collections, but for the provision of creating experiences, lasting memories and spaces to engage. They are now meeting points and creative hubs. The UP Museums are evolving and striving to be creative, innovative, sustainable and progressive leaders by being active and future-focused.

The UP Museums are open daily, from 8am to 1pm. For more information and to book bespoke tours, email [email protected] or visit the website at https://www.up.ac.za/museums-collections