Dec 9, 2022

The Net vir Pret Barrydale Puppet Parade and Performance: 18 December 2022

Rehearsals are full steam ahead in Barrydale for the 2022 Puppet Performance and Parade created and produced by members of the CHR and aesthetic education partner, Net vir Pret.
Oct 10, 2022

Charlotte Maxeke at the CHR: Boschendal puppetry workshops and exhibition

In September 2022, the CHR’s artists in residence Siphokazi Mpofu and Sipho Ngxola and LoKO convenor Aja Marneweck, ran a puppetry workshop based on stories of Charlotte Maxeke, with young scholars from the Pniel area, culminating in an exhibition held in Boschendal on 17th September.
Dec 16, 2020

From the Office of the Vice-Chancellor: Statement on the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival

Statement from the University of the Western Cape Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Professor Tyrone Pretorius, on the Tenth Anniversary of the Barrydale Reconciliation Day Festival.
Dec 7, 2020

Reboot Eden: Celebrating Ten Years of Puppetry in Barrydale

The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (CHR), in partnership with Net vir Pret are celebrating 10 years of puppetry in Barrydale. Reboot Eden will be an online program of four new puppet performances that will be available online from the 16th -19th December 2020.
Dec 7, 2020

Reboot Eden: The Art of Recovery

For the past ten years the Centre for Humanities Research’s Laboratory of Kinetic Objects has been engaged in a mutual education and arts initiative (along with partners Net Vir Pret, Handspring Puppet Company, uKwanda Puppetry and Design Collective, and Magpie Collective) in the village of Barrydale some three hours outside of Cape Town. Given the COVID-19 pandemic, this years Barrydale parade is set to convene remotely.
Dec 7, 2020

Global Narratives of Artificial Intelligence: Sub-Saharan Africa – African Histories and Philosophies of Artificial Intelligence

The CHR’s Professor Jane Taylor will be participating in this weeks Global Narratives of Artificial Intelligence: Sub-Saharan Africa - African Histories and Philosophies of Artificial Intelligence conference hosted by the HSRC and the University of Cambridge.
Sep 18, 2020

The Long Minute

The CHR's Professor Jane Taylor, from the Laboratory for Kinetic Objects (LoKO) at the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), has filmed and directed a series of one minute films that will be posted one a day for this week at the Centre for the Less Good Idea.
Sep 5, 2020

ARA Podcast – Researching the Arts of Movement – a conversation with Prof Jane Taylor

As part of the Arts Research Africa dialogue, the CHR’s Professor Jane Taylor was interviewed
Jun 9, 2020

LoKO: Seminar One

These online seminars will pursue many of the questions which we would pursue in the normal course of things; although things are anything but normal.
Jun 1, 2020

Die Virus

The song was inspired by a request made to Selanvor (who is fast becoming one of Barrydale’s celebrated young artists) from residents of the village, to create an artistic response to the virus and the time we are in now.
Nov 25, 2019

The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade: mobilising creative ecologies in the Klein Karoo, South Africa

A new publication by Aja Marneweck explores the multifaceted process of creating the large-scale annual public puppetry event, The Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade, in the rural town of Barrydale, South Africa.
Nov 14, 2019

The Final Spring (Barrydale 2019)

The Centre for Humanities Research and partners Net vir Pret present the ninth annual Barrydale Giant Puppet Parade and Performance.

The CHR fellowship programme will continue in 2022 through online platforms and, where permitted, limited live events hosted in compliance with COVID-19 protocols. Please follow our events page for updates about events.

For queries, please email us at

centreforhumanitiesresearch@uwc.ac.za

COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal