Coordinator: PPAP, Free State - 2021

The Presidential Public Art Programme was a large-scale public art and community project that came about throughout the Free State from the 1st of February 2021 to the 18th of April 2021. It formed part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus Plan (PESP) which had provided 100 young artists with the opportunity to participate in a nationwide Public Arts programme.

This Programme brought together 100 local artists working in different cities, towns and communities and to paint large murals to raise awareness on social ills such as Gender Based Violence and health-related issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to popularise national symbols in order to create national pride through enabling the young artists to create art murals, participate in performance public art, and create multimedia expressions.

The aim of these artworks is to revive and beautify community spaces and instil community pride and a sense of place and belonging for the artists and the community. These beautified spaces will hopefully become sites of attraction for local tourism and contribute to the development of creative cities, towns and places of interest.

21 mural paintings is painted in different towns and communities by local artists in, amongst others, Bloemfontein, Botshabelo, Harrismith, Koffiefontein, QwaQwa, Soutpan, Thaba Nchu and Welkom.

Developed and implemented a fully

equipped Mobile Art Museum. The mobile museum service high schools in the province primarily grade 10- 12 visual art learners and to a lesser extent grade 8-9 learners.