South African National Gallery

Iziko Museums of South Africa operates 11 national museums in Cape Town.  It is one of the premier cultural institutions in South Africa.  The museums house natural history, social history and art collections in magnificent, historic buildings which in themselves are national treasures.

IZIKO is an isiXhosa word, meaning ‘hearth’, traditionally and symbolically the social centre of the home; a place associated with warmth, kinship and ancestral spirits. Here food is prepared and shared, stories are told and knowledge is passed from one generation to the next.

Iziko Museums seeks to emulate this by creating receptive spaces for cultural interaction and dialogue. We are proud to ignite connections between our shared history, our heritage and each other.  Iziko  embodies the spirit of a transformed institution and our vision of ‘African Museums of Excellence’,  a place for all South Africans to gather, nourish body and soul and share stories, where  knowledge is passed from one generation to the next. Iziko celebrates our heritage whilst generating new cultural legacies for a society that has moved beyond the shackles of the past. 

The three ‘flames’ in our ‘hearth’ logo represent the three collections brought together in our 11 museums: Social History (ochre); Art (red); and Natural History (green). Our collections are made accessible to learners and the public through education, public programmes and exhibitions.  While we have many permanent exhibitions, we regularly create and host temporary exhibitions so that the public can enjoy the more than one million items in our collections.  We also arrange travelling exhibitions to other cities while playing host to travelling exhibitions from other local and international museums.