PRESS RELEASE, April 2026

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The finalists of the Graaff-Reinet/ Robert Sobukwe Town residency proposals for the 2026 Social Impact Impact Arts Prize Fellowship all have the potential to transform the Karoo town into a profound living arts laboratory where geological records of “deep time” converge with contemporary social discourse. Across the broad categories of Visual Art, Public Art, Art x Craft, Art x Performance, Art x Writing, Art x Photography, and Art x Community-based practices, they position the town as a living laboratory. Deep geological time of the Karoo intersects with complex environmental and social histories, including human development, historical entanglements, and contemporary rural economic realities. Each proposal demonstrates a commitment to engaging place not as backdrop, but as an active condition shaping both process and outcome.​A central thread running through these works is an urgent response to climate change [...]​

 

Materiality is central to this creative process. The artists reject mass-produced media in favour of a “ground-up” approach, utilising local ochres, minerals, clays, and stones to build and tell stories. This focus on raw materials—seen in the hand-forged “Karoo Toolkit” or various rammed-earth pavilions—connects the act of making to the earth’s physical ancient crust. Even the Karoo wind is treated as a material force, captured through acoustic sculptures and “wind-scales” that translate invisible atmospheric shifts into tangible sound and storytelling in “The Winds of Desolation”.​The social impact of these residencies is rooted in a radical model of knowledge transfer. [...]​​

 

The artists’ legacies are designed to be both physical and systemic [...]  these projects ensure that creative labour remains in Graaff-Reinet/ Robert Sobukwe Town. Ultimately, these interventions reimagine the valley as a place of possible healing and narrative repair, weaving together an indigenous past and the ecological future to build a more inclusive and resilient communal identity.​​