THE KOUGA ART SOCIETY COMMITTEE.
We are a small group of artists, driven towards achieving our goals and focused on the expansion of art within the community. We are all founding members with particular skills and backgrounds which allow us to work together in a unique way. What brought us together was a shared vision for our society, galleries, artists, culture and community.
HOW WE STARTED
A Kouga Art Society has been a point of discussion amongst artists and gallery owners for a long time. Finally, in 2020 the artist community, congregated to discuss such a society, which was duly formed by the artists. The Jeffreys Bay and St Francis Bay area have a large contingent of amazing artists and very creative people who strive to uplift art which should become more visible and form a healthy part of the Kouga community.
OUR MISSION
The Society exists to provide the artists of the Kouga area with a platform and a unified voice for the nurturing, promotion and growth of the arts and to provide a vantage point for artists, supporters and audiences.
The Kouga Art Society positioned itself as a club or association, is a non-profit structure to further the growth of its membership, expand artist activities, build capabilities and strengthen a community spirit.
OUR SHORT TERM GOALS
1. Promote the collective voice of artists and the arts within our community
2. Contribute to arts education and build capabilities
3. Expand artists activities into the community
4. Collaborate with all members of society to enhance the artist community
Mike has been a Business Development Executive in the Information Technology and Finance Industry, with more than 3 decades of consulting and management experience. He focused on helping organizations, develop strategic plans towards new business models and helped with the implementation actions thereof.
He has worked extensively nationally and internationally with the migration of organisation structures and re-engineering processes to meet the changing demands of the economic environment. Mike has been involved with the art world for most of his life and is an active leader within his church community in Jeffreys Bay. He holds an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand and an undergraduate degree in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Port Elizabeth.
Petra Stiglingh is a professional artist with more than 40 years experience in water colour, acrylics, oils and pastel. She did a lot of teaching over the years doing workshops all over South Africa and Namibia including private art classes.
She did a few one man exhibitions in South Africa, England and Canada. She participated in numerous combined exhibitions in South Africa and Namibia. Her creations have found places of prominence in homes in England, Germany, Belgium, America and Canada. Her work is mainly impressionistic and she loves bright colours expressing the beauty of nature and the human body and soul. To be an artist is the greatest gift one could get out of the hand of our great Creator. Petra likes to share her knowledge with everybody.
Petra has been in the Art business since 1984 arranging art exhibitions and selling art of a variety of different artists . She is the owner of Petra Stiglingh Art Gallery in Jeffreys Bay, presenting the artist and art materials to the community.