The Boksburg Creative Art Centre celebrates its 20th anniversary in April and the custodian of the centre, Barry de Villiers, has only one wish for this special occasion.
“I would love to see our ‘Penguin Room’ restored to its former glory.”
The Penguin Room, which got its name after a donation of art supplies was received from Penguin stationers, is upstairs in the art centre and was, up until three years ago, used for all sorts of wonderful activities like prize-givings, lectures, exhibitions and glorious musical and themed events.
The room’s fate has been sealed by broken window panes or, more specifically, pigeons which came in through the broken windows and proceeded to create their own form of “art” all over the furnishings, walls and floor.
It may seem unreal that nobody has repaired the window panes to put paid to the feathery squatters, but it isn’t quite that simple – the window panes in question are more than 20m up in the roof of the Penguin Room.
“I remember many years ago we also had to repair window panes and the fire department kindly assisted us with their very long ladder,” said de Villiers. Read more