RLabs celebrated its 7th year of serving communities across Cape Town in 2015 and hosted an exhibition and festival at Nantes Park in Bridgetown celebrating stories of hope of community members through various art forms. The event was hosted over 2 days and had more than 6,000 members from the community and special guests in attendance. The exhibition showcased visual arts, cinematography, photography, literature and the performing arts. The theme was “Larger than Life” and it was showcased through the exhibition.
The SoH 2016 festival will extend to 3 days, 1 – 3 December 2016, with a showcase of local expressions of various art forms telling – inspiring stories, celebration of community members through graduations, social innovation and technology showcase and other special thematic events. SoH 2016 will be back at Nantes Park in Bridgetown, the same community where RLabs was founded and expanded its work across 5 continents. SoH 2016 expects to attract 10,000 people over the 3 days.
As part of this event, RLabs has been setting up “pop-up” exhibitions around Cape Town for the past three months and we plan on continuing doing this leading up to the event.
On Friday, 20 May 2016, we hosted a Stories of HOPE Pop up exhibition at the RLabs Cafe in the American Corner, Central Library, Cape Town. This is what some of our team members had to say about it:
“Friday went very well. I took some photos and told some people what each piece in the exhibition means. It was a success and a good experience for me. – Keezin Mosime
“On Friday we had a job to do, which was to invite people to the art exhibition, and the experience was wonderful to go out and talk to people you do not even know and to talk about RLABS especially about the art work, and also to talk about their Stories of HOPE. Bradley’s story had touched my heart, growing up without a father and walking the same step like your daddy, no matter what you go through in life you can make a success.” – Monique Mienies
“Friday was so amazing. I learnt so much about Stories of HOPE. Talking to a young man, he told me his story. I wanted to cry and felt for him because I went through the same things. I’m happy that RLabs and the S.O.H pop up was there to inspire people on Friday. I found that people want to know about RLabs. I would like to do the POP UP again soon.” – Robyn-Leigh Meyer
“Handing out flyers was weird! I didn’t know what a pop up Art exhibition was until , I attended it on Friday. Talking in front of people is an issue… I’m a “behind the scene” type of person , but it was exciting to stand in front of the library inviting people in to celebrate Art with us. I even got a hug from a lady just by telling her about the exhibition and what RLABS is about. Her idea of RLABS was a “coffee shop”. SO it was a bit of a challenge, a bit strange and a lot of FUN. Hearing about the amazing stories of Hope through art was a great experience.” – Janine Williams
For more information about this amazing event, check our Facebook page, RLabs.
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