Celebrating Childhood
ABOUT
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood is an exciting museum for children & adults of all ages, exploring and celebrating childhood.
This interactive museum, the first museum of childhood in Africa, provides an institution for the heritage, documentation, memory, oral history, research, and interpretation of childhood. Housing a national collection of childhood-related exhibitions, the museum aims to capture the heritage of childhood and the role that children play in society. This is achieved through an interactive space that allows an opportunity for children, families and communities to celebrate childhood, to gain insights into childhood and to learn about childhood heritage.
Entrance to the museum is FREE.
This is a project of the Centre for Early Childhood Development (www.cecd.org.za) funded by the National Lotteries Commission (www.nlb.org.za).
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood is also a member of the South African Museums Association.
Get a (virtual) sneak peek!
Would you like to see what the Cape Town Museum of Childhood is all about but are not able to visit us in person just yet? We have an exciting new experience for you!
You can now take a virtual tour of museum at our new Virtual Museum Tour.
Click through the map, and take a virtual walk through of our exhibitions. You can even click on exhibition items to view the media, and listen to stories!
School Group Visits
We offer a programme for schools who would like to do group visits to our museum. School group visits are run on Tuesdays and are best suited to grade 3 and grade 4 learners. School group visits are limited to 30 children per visit.
School visits to the museum are free, however, we encourage school groups that have the means to make a donation toward our museum school visit programme to support visits from less privileged schools.
If you are interested in making a booking or would like more information, please email us on info@museumofchildhood.org.za
“A remarkable place that truly understands the importance of play and celebrates childhood in its purest form. The staff are friendly and all activities are well thought-out making the Museum an enjoyable experience for all children (both neurotypical and neurodiverse).” - Simoné Lewis (Chameleon Schools, Sybrand Park)
Upcoming events
Join Bomikazi Nomzanga for a Story Reading session at the museum on the following Saturdays from 11:00am to 11:45am:
17 August
14 September
19 October
23 November
14 December
These stories are suitable for children of all ages and adults are welcome too!
If you would like Bomikazi to read a story at your primary school or early childhood development centre, please email us on info@museumofchildhood.org.za
Videos
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood is always engaging with our supporters and individuals that inspire us!
Watch some of the videos below to see what we have been up to in front of the camera!
To view all of our videos, click here: Cape Town Museum of Childhood | Video Gallery
Virtual Exhibitions
We have a virtual experience of our
"Madiba and Children" room online!
Click here to visit the
virtual exhibit: https://www.museumofchildhood.org.za/madiba-and-children
To view the virtual exhibition "The State of Children in South Africa" which serves as a online companion to the physical exhibition housed in the museum,
click here: https://www.museumofchildhood.org.za/the-state-of-children
"Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets."
~ Roald Dahl
OUTREACH PROJECTS
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood engages with communities throughout the Western Cape to offer educational and diverse outreach programmes to explore and celebrate childhood with children and adults in their communities.
Youth Day
Film Festival
International Museums' day
/ museum's week
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood hosted its first film festival on Youth Day, 16 June 2022. The festival commemorated Youth Day, a historic day for South Africa which honours the courage of youth who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976. Films featured at the festival included ‘Action Kommadant’ and ‘Miseducation’ and ‘The Wynberg 7’ and ‘Ballie Boys’ The festival also included a panel discussion with the filmmakers...
For the past two years, we have collaborated with Iziko Museums for International Museums Day. This year we planned a few activities in celebration of International Museums Day...
International
mother-tongue day
World
read aloud day
South African
library week
This year the theme for South African Library Week was ‘Re-imagine! Re-purpose! Re-discover…Libraries!’ To reinforce this theme we setup story writing areas at Red Hill Library in Red Hill and Adriaanse Public Library in Elsies River...
The Magic
Classroom
We collaborated with Khoi Khoi language activist Mr Denver Breda for International Mother Tongue Day. We visited Parkwood Busy Bees and Fairways ECD Centre to present a short programme on the Khoi Khoi language.
In celebration of Women’s Month, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood spent time with twenty young girls at St George’s Home for Girls in Wynberg. We took some of our friends from the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and Box Girls SA along with us...
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood believes that childhood should be a time for magic and wonder. As such, the museum partnered with the College of Magic to roll-out the “Magic Classroom” Project in Cape Town.
Infecting
the City
Crafting with
Canvas Club
#EduSnap exhibition
at the Artscape
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood joined the “Infecting the City” Public Arts Festival with a statement piece showcasing over 100 headline posters that relate to the violence against children in Cape Town....
The Museum collaborated with Marie van der Merwe, branch owner of the Southern Suburbs North Canvas Club, to present arts and craft sessions with about 50 children from Christene Revell Children’s Home, Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children Pre-school and Marsh Memorial Home...
Our #EduSnap Smartphone Photography exhibition was housed at the Arstcape Theatre. The exhibition was on display in the marble foyer extension and seen by a number of people visiting the Artscape for shows and productions...
International Literacy Day with Kewtown Primary School
Women's Month Visit to St George's Home for Girls
#EduSnap Photography
Project 2019
On the 5 September, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood celebrated International Literacy Day with about 50 grade 4 learners at Kewtown Primary School. We invited our friend Emile Jansen, founder of Heal the Hood, to share stories that he wrote for his own children to educate them about their Khoisan heritage..
In celebration of Women’s Month the Cape Town Museum of Childhood spent time with twenty young girls at St George’s Home for Girls in Wynberg. We took some of our friends from the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and Box Girls SA along with us...
For a second time, the Museum collaborated with the Orms Cape Town School of Photography and invited high school learners in Cape Town to participate in their “#EduSnap” smartphone photography project. Five students were guided by Lauren Theunissen, a lecturer at the Orms Cape Town School of Photography,
“The Games We Played” - Simon’s Town Museum
Child Protection Week -
Silent Protest
'Action Kommandant' screening
In celebration of International Day of the Families, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood, Simon’s Town Museum and District Six Museum collaborated to take the seniors of Ocean View, Simon’s Town and District Six down memory lane and reminisced on the childhood games they played...
On Wednesday 29 May, the museum team held a silent protest in support of Child Protection Week. The protesters stood together to raise awareness about the injustices against children in Cape Town and encouraged the public to embrace the “your child is my child” mantra.
In celebration of Freedom Day, on the 26 April, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood screened the documentary film “Action Kommandant” at Ocean View High School to a group of grade 10 and 11 learners.
“Untold Stories”
Book Launch
Crafting @ Kuyasa
Public Library
Library Week
@ Belhar Public Library
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood together with the Centre for Early Childhood Development launched a book titled ‘Untold Stories: Memories of growing up in a different era’ which features the untold stories of six South Africans sharing their unique childhood stories while growing up under the Apartheid regime.
Kuyasa Library in Khayelitsha invited the Cape Town Museum of Childhood to join their Library Week festivities. The museum presented an arts and crafts session for about 40 young children aged 4-5 years old from early childhood development centres in Khayelitsha.
In celebration of national Library Week, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood hosted a story writing competition and presented a pop-up exhibition at Belhar Library.
#Edusnap
Photography Project
Crafting with Christene Revell Children' Home
'Action Kommandant' Screening 2018
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood and Orms Cape Town School of Photography have collaborated to present a smartphone photography project that targets high school learners in Cape Town. The aim of #EduSnap is to celebrate childhood, and specifically education as a significant stage of childhood, by giving high school students in Cape Town the opportunity to share their experiences of their education with each other and acquire valuable new skills.
A group of 20 young children aged 4 – 5 years old from Christene Revell Children’s Home in Athlone were invited to try out the museum' Activity Room for an arts and crafts session. skills.
In celebration of Freedom Day, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood, in collaboration with the Blue Collar Foundation, presented a film screening of Action Kommandant at Alexander Sinton High School to a group of 220 learners. Action Kommandant is a documentary film based on freedom fighter Ashley Kriel’s life.
International
Museum Day
Athlone Library
Week
Celebrating Childhood
in Gouda
On 16 May, in celebration of International Museum Day, the Cape Town Museum of Childhood partnered with Iziko Museums by taking their mobile museum to Athlone Christian Academy in Silvertown, Athlone. The mobile museum is part of Iziko Museum’s educational outreach project which serves rural and urban communities that are unable to visit their museums.
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood, together with the Centre for Early Childhood Development, celebrated library week at Athlone library with a pop-up exhibition and short story writing competition from 19-29 March. The aim of the Cape Town Museum of Childhood’s Library Week programme was to encourage people to visit libraries and remind them of the importance of this resource within communities; as well as to encourage a culture of story writing by giving children and youth a platform to express this creative ability.
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood hosted a celebration of childhood with the community of Gouda. The celebration took place on 02 March at the Gouda Community Library. Community members were invited to join in on the celebration where everyone listened to older community members share their childhood stories about growing up in Gouda.
My Lavender Hill,
My Childhood
In building up to the opening of the Cape Town Museum of Childhood, the Museum engaged with communities to capture childhood experiences and memories, giving children their own voice in the museum. One such project, focussing on youth specifically, took place in a partnership with Project 021.
'This is me'
Project
Watch this space for more!
The Cape Town Museum of Childhood partnered with SHAWCO Education (a student run organisation at the University of Cape Town) to provide learners the opportunity to tell other children and other South Africans, about their lives.
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"Play is the highest form of research"
~ Albert Einstein