;){kind=logo}
INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY ON FRIDAY, 18 MAY 2018.
Posted by Lorenzo Samuels on 15 May 2018 4:45 AM CAT
The International Council of Museums (ICOM) established International Museum Day in 1977 to increase public awareness of the role of museums in the development of society, and it has been steadily gaining momentum ever since. In 2017, International Museum Day garnered record breaking participation with more than 36,000 museums hosting events in some 156 countries.
Our town is privileged to have two museums, namely Paarl Museum and the “Afrikaans Taalmuseum”.
At Paarl Museum entrance is free on Friday and Saturday and they invite the community to please visit them this weekend.
Paarl Museum has collaborated with affiliated museums and has designed a website to market the museums in our area. It will be launched on 1 June at the Tulbagh Museum.
Paarl Museum
The museum is housed in an old Cape Dutch House which is one of the earliest homes in Paarl.
The Dutch Reformed congregation of Drakenstein (Paarl) was established in 1691 at the insistence of the newly arrived Huguenots. Ground for the building of a parsonage was purchased here in 1714 and the first building was probably built in 1715.
This Cape Dutch house was built in 1787 in the traditional U-shape and still retains the original fixed-transom windows and most of the internal doors. The gables and front door were changed during major restoration in 1937 when the dilapidated house was purchased for museum purposes.
The museum houses one of the best collections of Cape Armoires and a complete Cape Dutch kitchen.
The history of local resistance against Apartheid is also displayed.
Opening times: Mon – Fri: 09:00 – 16:00; Sat: 10:00 – 13:00
paarlmuseum@telkomsa.net
T +27 21 872 2651
Afrikaans Taalmuseum
This double storey house has a five bay façade and reflects the vernacular style of the early Victorian period c 1850.
It belonged to Gideon Malherbe when a meeting was held in 1875 where Afrikaans was first acknowledged as a separate language differing markedly from its root language, Dutch.
The “Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners” was established which had as its aim the promotion of the “new” language.
Various books including the Bible, translated into Afrikaans, were published, poetry was written and a regular newspaper was printed here. This museum was opened in 1975. The history of these “fathers of the language” is portrayed in detail.
Opening times: Mon – Fri: 08:30 – 16:30
admin@taalmuseum.co.za
T +27 (0)21 863 4809/ 0543/ 0542
