Overview

The success of a Fine Arts education can perhaps best be demonstrated through the achievements of students after they leave their educational institution. Michaelis graduates have gone on to work in the entire range of visual arts areas, including film, media, design, curatorship, museology, and of course, professional art production. They have proven to be adaptable and innovative in applying the skills learnt at this institution to the ever-changing face of the visual arts arena. Graduates who have won the Standard Bank Young Artist award include Gavin Younge, Pippa Skotnes, Malcolm Payne, Lien Botha, Brett Murray, Berni Searle, Nandipha Mtambo, Janni Younge, Mikhael Subotzky,  Hasan and Husain Essop, Mohau Modisakeng, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Angel Ho, Bronwyn Katz. Our graduates have also won other major awards, including the HG Steyn Award (Pippa Skotnes), the ABSA Atelier (Ian Grose and Ruth Sachs), Sasol New Signatures (Mohau Modisakeng) and Cape Town Public Sculpture Awards (Brett Murray, Kevin Brand, Johann van der Schijff, Fritha Langerman and Katherine Bull). In 2009 Thembinkosi Goniwe was a co-curator of the South African exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which included the work of alumnus Lyndi Sales; in 2013 Brenton Maart (a PhD candidate at the School) curated the South African exhibition, which included work by graduates Andrew Putter, Joanne Bloch, Cameron Platter and Gerhard Marx; in 2019 the South African pavilion was curated by staff members Nomusa Makhubu and Nkule Mabaso and included the work of Mawande Ka Zenzile.

Numerous past students have gone on to take up positions in tertiary institutions nationally and internationally. These include Muthoni Kimani, Kevin Brand, Margaret Chetwin, Lovell Friedman, Randolph Hartzenberg, Janet Purcell, Lorraine Khoury at Cape Peninsula University of Technology;  Ashley Walters and Vivian van der Merwe at Stellenbosch University; Zen Marie, Jo Ractliffe, Dorothee Kreutzfeld, Zen Marie, Natasha Christopher and Joshua Williams at the University of the Witwatersrand; Mgcineni Sobopha at Fort Hare University, Eunice Geustyn at the Ruth Prowse School of Art;  Ruth Sacks at the University of Johannesburg; Shelley Sacks at Oxford Brookes University, Charlayn von Solms at the University of the Free State, Nicola Grobler at University of Pretoria; Julia Rosa Clark and Rowan Smith at the Cape Town Create Academy; Siona O' Connell at the University of. Pretoria and Thembinkosi Goniwe and Christine Dixie at Rhodes University. Many of our other graduates teach in secondary schools and other institutions. Our graduates regularly go on to be accepted into higher degree programmes at the world’s finest art academies, including the Rijksakademie and the Ateliers in Amsterdam, Goldsmiths College and St. Martin’s in London, The Tisch School in New York and other prestigious institutions around the globe.

Some examples of graduates who have made significant achievements include internationally renowned Handspring puppeteers Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, Marlene Dumas, Bruce Arnott, Peggy Delport, David Brown, Brendhan Dickerson, Roderick Sauls, Richard Wake, Kevin Atkinson, Lisa Brice, Chris Ledochowski, Matt Hindley, Gerald Machona, Natasha Norman, Jake Aikman, Ed Young, Dan Halter, Terry Kurgan, Paul Grendon, Bill Davis, Barend de Wet, Angela Ferreira, Louise Linder, Claudette Schreuders, Bonita Alice, Nicolaas Maritz, Bonolo Kavula, Tom Cullberg, Vuyile Voyiya, Sue Williamson, Georgina Gratrix, George Mahashe, Dominique Edwards, Steven Tanschell, Clare Butcher, Tracy Payne, Heath Nash, Ralph Borland, Jody Paulsen, Kamyar Binesh Tarigh, Wandile Kasibe, Ernestine White, Haroon Gunn-Salie, Lionel Davies, Richard Baholo, Kurt Campbell, Inga Somdyala, Jean Brundrit, Khanyisile Mbongwa, Svea Josephy, Fabian Saptouw, Sethembile Msezane,  Lungiswa Gqunta, Siwa Mgoboza, Rory Emmett, Simphiwe Ndzube and Dada Khanyisa.

Honorary Degrees awarded