Current Exhibitions

Celebrate art from the museum’s collection in an exhibition titled "Art our Passion – Museum our Home”.

The exhibition was curated by all members of the Art Museum team. The Art Museum front of house team, admin support team, conservator, framer, educator and Director chose artworks.  

Next to the selected works are quotes and stories, which share with the public staff experiences or observations about the artwork selected.  

Through Our Eyes is an annual exhibition coordinated by the RITZ MUSEUM in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.   In 2018, this annual exhibition turned 25 and local Jacksonville artists were invited to make works in response to the theme "Journey to South Africa: Struggle & Resistance”. 

The City of Nelson Mandela Bay was selected as a Sister City partner for Jacksonville because of our profound liberation history.  Nelson Mandela Bay has had an active relationship with Jacksonville since the year 2000. 2020 marks a 20 year milestone for Jacksonville’s participation in the Sister Cities project.

Hosting this exhibition by Jacksonville artists at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum affirms and strengthens the Sister City partnership and helps promote artists both here and in Jacksonville internationally. 

The artworks are of Artists from Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

Selected works from the Art Museum's permanent collection, take the viewer on unique journeys through the past and present, both real and imaginary. 

Keith Dietrich retraces colonial and precolonial trade routes through the giant watercolor paintings while Andrietta Wentzel’s twelve sculptural totems invite us all to take the journey of the hero. 

Natasha Bezuidenhout’s large-scale ceramic installation is a memory of a life-changing journey made during her childhood while Berni Searle’s video brings attention to the plight of African refugees who risked their lives to get to the Canary Islands in the hope of a better life in Europe.