Iziko Museums of South Africa welcomes audiences into three of its flagship sites during the HEAT Winter Arts Festival.

A dynamic programme of visual art, live performance, printmaking, curator-led engagement and immersive digital experiences – running from 6 to 15 August. Activations at the Iziko Old Town House Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery and Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome will showcase new ways to engage with museum collections and exhibitions while experiencing the energy of one of Cape Town’s most anticipated winter cultural events.

The festival opened on Thursday, 6 August, with a city-wide programme that concluded at the recently reopened Iziko Old Town House Museum. The acclaimed Amici de Lumine Choir led audiences through Cape Town’s cultural precinct with a series of musical interventions. The grande finale at the Iziko Old Town House not only positioned the museum as a key destination in the festival’s opening celebrations but also set the tone for high expectations for the rest of the Winter Arts Festival.

Members of the Amici de Lumine Choir in performance at the historic Iziko Old Townhouse. Photo: Liza van Deventer The Iziko Old Town House Museum continues to host festival programming over the opening weekend. Concert of the Birds, a special opera and visual arts event inspired by Frans Snyders’ 17th-century painting of the same name, brings Opera UCT into dialogue with the museum collection to explore themes of historical memory and artistic restoration. Through a combination of storytelling, performance and historical interpretation, audiences encounter one of the museum’s significant artworks in a new and engaging way.

At the Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome, visitors will experience Synthetic by Nature, an immersive digital art programme curated by Mary Corrigall. Exploring the evolving relationship between technology and nature through sound, light and moving image, the programme transforms the dome into a large-scale contemporary art environment. The exhibition features work by internationally acclaimed digital artists MONOCOLOR (Austria), Jiha Jeon (South Korea) and Lydia Yakonowsky (Canada), providing audiences with a rare opportunity to experience contemporary digital practice within one of South Africa’s most distinctive cultural venues.

Further extending public participation, artist Natasha Norman, whose work features in the exhibition Reflections, currently on show at the Iziko Old Town House, will host a Japanese woodblock printing workshop. The hands-on workshop encourages participants to move beyond viewing and into making, using traditional printmaking techniques to explore artistic processes, replication and creative interpretation.

The Iziko South African National Gallery will also feature prominently in the festival programme through a guided preview of MaterealityV2, led by curator Andrea Lewis in conversation with participating artists Bonolo Kavula, Chris Soal and Unathi Mkonto. The event offers visitors a deeper understanding of the exhibition and the material, conceptual and social themes explored by the artists.

This year’s HEAT Winter Arts Festival theme, Ctrl + Z, draws on the concept of “undoing” and considers how ideas of repair, restoration and transformation play out beyond the digital world. Across Iziko’s participating sites, audiences will engage with exhibitions and performances that speak to themes of memory, conservation, redress, unlearning and renewal.

“Participating in the HEAT Winter Arts Festival provides an exciting opportunity for Iziko to showcase the breadth of experiences available across our museums and cultural sites,” said Phumzile Zonke, Iziko Museums of South Africa Advancement Director. “By bringing together visual art, music, opera, digital media and hands-on learning, we invite new and returning audiences to engage with our spaces in meaningful and unexpected ways. This programme reflects Iziko’s commitment to making museums dynamic places of learning, creativity and public participation.”

Through the Old Town House Museum, South African National Gallery, Planetarium, and Digital Dome, Iziko demonstrates the diverse ways in which museums can connect history, contemporary creativity, and engagement.

The Iziko programme forms part of the wider HEAT Winter Arts Festival, which runs from 6 to 15 August 2026 and includes more than 15 exhibitions and over 30 live events across Cape Town’s city centre. Together, the festival and Iziko’s activations invite residents and visitors alike to experience the city through art, performance, conversation and cultural discovery.

Iziko Museums’ HEAT events programme highlights:

Concert of the Birds

Sunday, 9 August, 12:00 to 13:00

Iziko Old Town House Museum

A special Opera UCT performance inspired by Frans Snyders’ Concert of the Birds, bringing opera into dialogue with the museum collection.

Synthetic by Nature

Saturday, 8 & 15 August | 15:00

Iziko Planetarium Digital Dome

An immersive programme of digital artworks by MONOCOLOR, Jiha Jeon and Lydia Yakonowsky exploring the relationship between technology and nature through sound, light and moving image.

Japanese Woodblock Printing Workshop with Natasha Norman

Friday, 14 August | 14:00

Iziko Old Town House Museum

A hands-on workshop inviting participants into the material process of Japanese woodblock printing.

MaterealityV2: First Look

Saturday, 15 August | 12:00

Iziko South African National Gallery

Andrea Lewis, curator of MaterealityV2, will be in conversation with Bonolo Kavula, Chris Soal and Unathi Mkonto, offering audiences insight into the exhibition and the artists’ material and conceptual approaches.

For the full programme and tickets, visit: www.heatfestival.org

Tebogo Sebua
tsebua@iziko.org.za
Iziko Museums Of South Africa
http://www.iziko.org.za