August 4, 2006
By Lucille Davie
A NEW mini-museum opened in Sophiatown last week, called the Sophiatown Heritage Experience.
A rich collection of photographs and clippings of old-time Sophiatown, the museum will be officially launched in October this year, says Tricia Sibbons, chairman of the board of the Trevor Huddleston CR Memorial Centre, the body that administers the museum.
The centre has just moved to new premises in Sophiatown, at St Joseph's Home, a national monument owned by the Anglican Diocese. The home was one of a handful of buildings that were spared the bulldozers in the 1950s and early 1960s, when the suburb was razed to the ground in the name of apartheid's separate development.
It was built in 1918 for orphan children of coloured men who served and died in World War 1. The red-brick building is shaped in a classic square, with white wooden railings overlooking a cosy quadrangle with a central fountain. The museum is in a building at the entrance to the property, now called Trevor Huddleston House.
The centre has been situated in a house alongside the Christ the King Anglican Church in Ray Street for the past five years.
The aim of the centre is to "promote the educational, economic, spiritual and cultural upliftment of disadvantaged people in our nation". This is done by means of a range of activities and classes offered to the community: pottery, computer, beadwork and sewing. Art classes, together with business skills classes, are given, to allow artists to become self-sustainable.
These products are produced under the "Made in Sophiatown" label, registered as a trademark to the centre, and sold to the corporate market.
ICT training is given to unemployed youngsters and domestic workers, and there is an annual winter and summer school for schoolchildren. An outreach programme also educates people regarding the history of Sophiatown.
The museum collects oral, videotaped testimonies from previous Sophiatown residents, and has so far accumulated 50 testimonies in its archives.
Sibbons says they're consulting with Constitution Hill and Wits University on how to enhance the museum experience.
The museum also encourages ex-residents to leave items of clothing and everyday living with them for display, to capture the feel of life in the suburb 50 years ago.
The centre has trained five guides to conduct tours of the suburb.
Sibbons says the centre gets its funding from the national lottery, the National Arts Council, corporates and overseas charities.
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