Current Exhibitions

Art Museums 70th Anniversary celebration
22 June 2026 TO 22 June 2027

The Art Museum celebrates its 70th anniversary on 22 June 2026, marking seven decades of cultural and artistic heritage.

To commemorate this important milestone, the museum will launch a series of exhibitions throughout the year. The first exhibition, titled "Idioms of Us”, will open in the Main Hall of the Art Museum.

Seven decades of preserving, interpreting, and sharing art with our community.

Over the years, the museum has become more than a space for exhibition; it is a place of learning, reflection, and creative exchange, where art connects people across time and experience.

As we mark this milestone, we are reminded of the enduring nature of art:

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” – Thomas Merton

This anniversary is not only a celebration of the past, but a reaffirmation of our commitment to shaping inclusive, engaging, and meaningful experiences for future generations.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the artists, staff, visitors, and community members who have contributed to this legacy.

We look forward to continuing this journey together

To complement the 70th anniversary exhibition programme, the museum will host a variety of community-focused activities, including art workshops, walkabouts, guided tours, and behind-the-scenes tours. Dates and further details for these events will be announced soon.

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum has a collection of over 8000 art and craft objects and the collection is the heart of the Art Museum.

It is home to a comprehensive collection of South African art and craft and specializes in the art of the Eastern Cape Province. There are three exhibition halls that are re-hung throughout the year to accommodate our collections as well as our programme of special exhibitions.

Originally named the King George VI Art Gallery, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum was founded by the Port Elizabeth Municipality on the 22 June 1956. The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum has been incorporated into the municipal structure of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

Exhibition: Idioms of us
22 June 2026 TO 10 October 2026

IDIOMS OF US celebrates the distinctive language of art and the ways artists use it to express something profound about the world around us.

This year, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum marks its 70th anniversary. As custodian of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s art collection, the Art Museum has safeguarded and expanded a remarkable archive of more than 8,000 artworks.

Among these, are pieces acquired for the Red Location Art Gallery. The works featured in this exhibition have been drawn from these permanent collections, reflecting seven decades of artistic acquisition and preservation.

Unseen
29 August 2026 TO 09 January 2027

On the 29th of August,The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum will open an exhibition titled: Unseen, in celebration of women’s month.

The Museum invites visitors to join in making short videos talking about people they know, people in society or important issues that you feel are unseen. The videos will end with the words, "unseen” now "seen”.

The exhibition opens in conjunction with the Nelson Mandela Bay University exhibition opening at the Bird Street Gallery, titled Unseen Together featuring the work of Micaela Scholtz, Mieke Janse van Rensburg and Amberleigh du Plessis. The exhibition is a visual exploration of Illness and Disability and opens on 24th August 2026.

Unseen, at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum is curated by Sive Xelo. She was part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s unemployment program. A program designed to provide experience for Graduates within the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

Xelo curated the exhibition from artworks in the permanent collection of the Art Museum and designed the exhibition to shine a light on artists, stories, and creative practices that are undervalued and underrepresented in society. The exhibition celebrates women artists, emerging artists, and other underrepresented creatives whose contributions have been overlooked despite their artistic significance.

Visitors are encouraged to discover the people, places, and stories that have received less attention.

The message of the show is, "We see you, we’ve been seeing you, but we forgot to celebrate you”

The exhibition includes paintings; photographic portraits; landscapes, video work and three-dimensional work such as ceramics. At the center of the exhibition hangs an empty frame to encourage visitors to think of someone in their lives that is unseen but deserves to be seen.

Rather than asking visitors simply to view artworks, the exhibition will encourage them to celebrate these artists, and look for people in their own lives, who are overlooked and celebrate them, by saying "Unseen now Seen”.

Artworks on display are from the Art Museum's permanent collection.

Contact Details

The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum

Address:
1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth, 6001, South Africa
Telephone:
+27 (0)41 506 2000 / Fax: +27 (0)41 586 3234
E-mail:
artmuseum@mandelametro.gov.za
Please address all correspondence to the Director.

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