The Stellenbosch University (SU) museum backed up their Cultural Affairs Award for Best Museum Promoting Social Inclusion, which was awarded earlier this year, with another – an award for Sustainable Development, awarded by the Cape Winelands District Municipality.
“Sustainability is a key pillar of the university’s Vision 2040 and this prestigious award acknowledges the university museum as a major cultural and tourism destination in the region,” said Bongani Mgijima, director of the SU museum.
“We are grateful that our museum is, in a small way contributing to the achievement of
this bigger vision,” added Mr Mgijima.
Over the past couple of years, the university has taken a decision to have programmes that are more socially inclusive and responsible and are geared towards better community involvement.
One such example is African Drumming Tuesdays, which enables tourists and locals to learn the skills of playing the African drum.
The Access to Visual Arts programme is the museum’s flagship social investment tourism programme aimed at school pupils.
The programme pays for students from disadvantaged schools to be able to tour the museum.
Additionally, the museum rents out its facilities for conferences and events which constitute a huge tourist market share.
“The programmess at the museum are structured in such a way as to attract both local and international visitors,” said Ricky Brecht, education and public programmess officer at the museum.
For the past two years, in collaboration with the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, the museum has hosted networking events where all registered tour operators and tourist guides have an opportunity to meet one another.
The award was presented to the museum on Thursday September 27, which is celebrated as International Tourism day.
