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 and Hasan and Husain Essop. 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, Cameron Platter and Gerhard Marx.

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 and Randolph Hartzenberg at Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Zen Marie, Jo Ractliffe, Dorothee Kreutzfeld and Natasha Christopher at the University of the Witwatersrand; Mgcineni Sobopha at Fort Hare University, Eunice Geustyn at the Ruth Prowse School of Art; Charlayn von Solms at the University of the Free State, Nicola Grobler at University of Pretoria, 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.

Other select 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, Rod Sauls, Lisa Brice, Chris Ledochowski, Matt Hindley, Gerald Machona, Julia Rosa Clark, Natasha Norman, Jake Aikman, Ed Young, Dan Halter, Terry Kurgan, Cara van der Westhuizen, Bill Davis, Barend de Wet, Angela Ferreira, Louise Linder, Delise Reich, Claudette Schreuders, Stuart Bird, Bonita Alice, Bongi Bengu, Tom Cullberg, Stanley Hermans, Vuyile Voyiya, Sue Williamson, Judy Woodborne, Chad Roussouw, Jos Thorne, Steven Tanschell, Clare Butcher, Chris Swift, Tracy Payne, Heath Nash, Ashley Walters, Jody Paulsen, Wandile Kasibe, Rowan Smith, Gabriel Clarke-Brown, Lionel Davies, Richard Baholo, Kurt Campbell, Jean Brundrit, Svea Josephy, Fabian Saptouw, Sethimbile Msezane, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Lungiswa Gqunta, Siwa Mgoboza, Rory Emmett, Bronwyn Katz, Simphiwe Ndzube and Dada Khanyisa.

Honorary Degrees awarded