- The City of Cape Town has launched the Digital Vault, a new online platform designed to catalogue and preserve its vast collection of art and heritage items.
- This tool provides high-quality images and detailed descriptions of objects, allowing global access to sculptures, monuments, murals, and other historical artifacts.
- Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis described the Digital Vault as a significant project to protect Cape Town’s heritage, making it easily accessible to the public and researchers alike.
To preserve and keep track of the City of Cape Town’s interesting artworks and heritage items, a digital tool has been created to allow people to access and explore these items from anywhere in the world.
The Digital Vault is an online tool to manage art and heritage objects owned by the City. It was launched at City Hall on Friday 20 September.
As the curtain came down on Heritage Month, the tool aims to capture and highlight the City’s rich heritage and history.
User-friendly
Christoffel Smalbenger, officer at the City’s Arts and Culture Development branch, said each item in the vault is listed with high-quality images, with descriptive information and some of the stories explaining the item’s value and importance.
“It is user-friendly. People can find some sculptures, monuments, memorials, murals. Things displayed in offices like artwork, silverware, antique furniture, medals, and mayoral regalia on the vault. It is beneficial to researchers so that they can see what we have, and they can also request more information if they require.”
He said this enables them to keep track of objects. “This is a wonderful tool to have. It helps with accountability and transparency so that people can see what we have.”
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Smalbenger, artists and the public can also apply for a Public Art Permit via the Digital Vault, making this process much more convenient for both the applicants and City officials.
He explained that the vault has an internal database that will be used by City officials to catalogue art and heritage items and to record information that is essential for the management and care, such as the location, condition and value of each item.
Some of the items on the Digital Vault are in public spaces and on exhibition. These include the Delville Wood Memorial in the Company’s Garden, and the Civic Collection Exhibition at the City Hall, a collection of unique, valuable and irreplaceable movable heritage assets (historical, archaeological, scientific and artistic) that reflect the history and growth of Cape Town.
The Attic at the City Hall is still home to the exhibition that is managed by the Arts and Culture Development branch.
First of its kind
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the vault is the first public-facing digital catalogue of art and heritage in the country. “This is a significant project that will help us protect our heritage. It will make sure that all the precious artifacts, pieces, artworks that we have around the city stored in various places are now together in one place digitally and available to the public. I think it’s lovely for protecting our heritage.”
Patricia van der Ross, Mayco member for community services and health, said the City believes in the importance of preserving, investigating and sharing our heritage, because it is essential for people’s identity building, and creating a sense of belonging.
She said in this way people can learn, appreciate and be inspired.
“On a societal level it enables social inclusion which are needed in our city.”
Van der Ross said the vault will also be beneficial to schools.
“It is not only important for us documenting history but also for our future. This is the perfect platform to ensure our history is marked, labelled, steadfast and cannot be erased. Parents can now take their children on a digital journey depicting their history.”
The vault can be accessed at www.capetown.gov.za/DigitalVault
