A SPLENDID SUMMER SEND OFF….
Christopher Peter retires as director of UCT Irma Stern Museum
Above: One of Christopher Peter’s beautiful flower arrangements. Right: Christopher Peter, UCT Irma Stern Museum.
M
y career at the Irma Stern Museum began on a rainy, wintery Wednesday on the 1st August 1979. The curator’s cottage awaited me, the wall to wall carpets and the en suite bathroom had been the major drawcard for applying for the job, having come from a cold water cottage in Andringa Street, Stellenbosch where I had been working at the Stellenbosch Museum. In those days Cape Town in winter was wonderfully cold and wet and atmospheric. “The Firs”, Cecil Road, Rosebank with its overhanging gum tress, lonely atmosphere, pitch dark nights with the wind and the rain rattling the zinc roof of the cottage, was like my favourite poem come true – The House Beautiful by Robert Louis Stevenson – “A Naked house, a naked moor, a shivering pool before the door”
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These words could have been written for The Firs, Cecil Road, Irma’s home for 40 years just as it was to become mine: 34 years in residence, and 6 years independently, with my having acquired an apartment in Green Point in 2013. My old flat was turned into a useful new extension to the Museum in 2014. In the beginning, I can describe my situation as being one of being governed by remote control, in a lonely province, from the capital city Michaelis! Prof. Neville Dubow, Director of the Michaelis School was also Director of the Irma Stern Museum. As a 25 year old, I was a child curator! And was fortunate to have an encouraging boss who believed in me. I must say it was all rather intimidating. I was carried along by the fact that I adored Irma’s work,
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