Stellenbosch University Museum

The Stellenbosch University Museum stands at 52 Ryneveld Street, a few doors up from the Village Museum, and holds one of the largest collections of traditional African art in South Africa: more than six thousand masks, sculptures and textiles from across the continent, shown alongside the university’s wider art, cultural and scientific holdings. It ran for years as the Sasol Art Museum and still carries a changing programme of temporary exhibitions by South African and international artists through the year. Admission is free. It opens on weekdays only.

Two minutes up Ryneveld Street from the Village Museum, and almost nobody walks the extra block. The university’s museum holds more than six thousand pieces of traditional African art — masks, sculpture and textiles from across the continent — which makes it one of the largest collections of its kind in the country, and it costs nothing to walk into. A programme of temporary exhibitions by South African and international artists runs alongside the permanent holdings and changes through the year, so it is worth checking what is on before you go. Older guidebooks still call it the Sasol Art Museum. The catch is the hours: weekdays only, and the doors close at half past four.

Highlights

More than 6,000 pieces of traditional African art, one of the largest collections of its kind in South Africa
Free admission, a two-minute walk from the Village Museum on the same street
A changing programme of temporary exhibitions by South African and international artists

Highlights

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