Light from Africa - Art in the ForestLight from Africa - Art in the Forest - Unearthing creativity to support vulnerable children

Save The Date! Next Ceramic Show “Hand Thrown by Heart” launches 6 April at Art in the Forest, Constantia Nek

bianca — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:17:43 +0000

Outreach to Glencairn with the Rainbow Dreams Foundation

bianca — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:43:30 +0000

On Saturday afternoon 16 March , our Light from Africa art therapist Tessa Whyatt and resident artist Chuma Maweni, travelled to Glencairn for an outreach workshop with 72 vulnerable kids and 12 carer’s from the Rainbow Dreams Trust.

The afternoon activities were part of their holiday camp, highlighting the importance of self-esteem, self- respect and taking responsibility for yourself.

Kids ages ranged from 8- 20 years old and were split into 4 groups in which they played ice breaker games. The clay session required every child to make a life boat representing themselves and adding clay symbols of all the qualities they admired in others but want for themselves into this life boat.

Every boat will be professionally glazed and fired before being returned to the child to remind them of the special afternoon and their goals of that day.

Educational Clay workshop at Art in the Forest for kids from BEEP

bianca — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 12:13:26 +0000

On Saturday 16 March, 22 kids from the organisation BEEP (Beyond Expectation Environmental Project) enjoyed a morning workshop at Art in the Forest, Constantia Nek.

Lissa Claassens and Tessa Whyatt designed different exercises that incorporated this organisations values such as recycling and caring for the envirnoment into a fun therapeutic clay session. The kids could connect to nature in our garden, learned how to recycle clay, did various meditative pinch pot exercises, ice breakers, breath work and a clay class.

They were asked to think about qualities they admired in other people that they would like to have for themselves. They then chose an animal that represented these qualities and made it out of clay in our studio, which they will be able to take home after the final firing. This will remind them of all they have learnt at Art in the Forest during the workshop and to help them reach their aspirations of the day. The entire morning’s activities plus a healthy snack and juice is offered free of charge to these amazing teenagers!

Dominican School for the Deaf start weekly clay sessions at Art in the Forest

bianca — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:20:02 +0000

12 vulnerable children from the Dominican School for the Deaf in Witteboom are attending weekly clay classes at Art in the Forest every Wednesday. Assited by two translators, our resident Artist Chuma Maweni is teaching these kids different techniques in working with clay. Each term new kids from the school will attend classes for their art outing.

These outreach sessions are completely free for the school and we are delighted to be supporting and welcoming a new organisation to

Light from Africa Foundation outreach programs.

And Chuma is even learning sign language! :-)

New Outreach Space and Revamped Gallery at Art in the Forest

bianca — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:23:20 +0000

Seeing that the clay therapy programs sometimes require quiet and reflective environments, Art in the Forest shifted some tables, made some magic and created a new little outreach space for more intimate processes for our Carer’s and vulnerable kids.

Our gallery has also been revamped and restocked so please do visit us to view!

Light from Africa Piggy SOLD for a big donation!

bianca — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:34:15 +0000

This gorgeous ceramic piggy bank was made by Nkosiko and Madoda Fani for a fundraising auction at a Wine Fair in 2011! We didn’t end up auctioning it at the time and have had it at the gallery ART in the FOREST (collecting cash donations) since. Last week a beautiful woman walked into the gallery and offered R 8000 to buy it from us. Of course we said YES as R 8000 pays for LOTS of outreach workshops!

Interestingly enough, the lady who bought it lives in Israel and arranges ART tours to SA. She went on to commission a ceramic plaque by our studio which reads “Donations: Clay Therapy for vulnerable children in South Africa” to ensure that all guests to her home in Israel make regular contributions to our therapeutic clay workshops for vulnerable kids and care workers…