We wanted to share about a writing workshop ‘Art Writing in Today’s Digital Landscape’ by @artschoolafrica, which will be hosted by Sean O’Toole (@seanwotoole) and Nkgopoleng Moloi, both distinguished art writers based in Cape Town, South Africa.

The workshop will focus on the intricacies of being an art writer in today’s digital age. The speakers will offer valuable insights into their journeys, shedding light on the day-to-day challenges and rewards of their profession.

Sean O’Toole is a journalist, art critic and editor, whose chief focus is South African art and photography. Back in 2021, Sean wrote a wonderful text about our fellow Kagiso “Pat” Mautloa for 30th Anniversary Thami Mnyele Foundation Residency Award publication.

‘In the early 1970s, while still a young man living in Soweto and working in pastel and charcoal, Pat Mautloa befriended a group of likeminded artists, including David Koloane, Fikile Magadlela, and Thami Mnyele. The group often met at Magadlela’s home to listen to jazz and draw. Underpinning the bonhomie was their ambitious drive to revitalise art practice. Looking back to this earlier time, Mautloa, who turns 69 in 2021, remembers these informal get-togethers as “incubators for further creativity.” The expeditionary nature and collaborative method of these sessions would prove especially influential on his subsequent career as an artist.

“We were able to meet across regional borders and get to know each other,” explains Mautloa. He remembers travelling to Durban, where he met the poet and editor Mafika Gwala, as well as journeying to Pretoria to meet poet and painter Lefifi Tladi, a close friend of Magadlela and Mnyele. The rudimentary technologies that enabled and sustained these networks continue to amaze Mautloa. “People coordinated things out of nothing, without telephones,” he says. “That became the basis of the revolution. It was amazing.”’

The writing worksop, by the Art School Africa, will take place at 2 May.

More info here