Our board is made up for a team of volunteers who strongly believe in the visual arts and the role the Bag Factory has to play in the support and development of both the visual arts sector and visual artists. They work tirelessly to ensure that the organisation maintains its ethos and works towards its vision. By keeping the organisation in touch with the outside world, they provide guidance and support in ares of governance, fundraising, strategic direction and support. We are grateful for their hard work.

Makgati Molebatsi is a Marketing and Communications Specialist with extensive experience gained over 25 years. She graduated with a BA( SS) degree from the then University of the North (currently University of Limpopo) and went on to complete a one year Certificate in Business Administration from the Post Graduate Institute offered by the Wits Business School.

After working for a year as a Social Worker, she moved into Marketing and Communications; and has worked for Johnson & Johnson, Revlon, the  Edgars Group (now Edcon),  Eskom, Elements Marketing and Advertising and Intersite Property Management Services.

Pat Mautloa is a leading South African visual artist who has been based at the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios since 1992.He has been a vital part of the Bag Factory’s activities and his natural warmth and his commitment to open artistic practice makes him a valuable asset to the Bag Factory. If you visit his studio you will find it layered with bits and pieces of times gone by, found fragments of the city and relics of the people who’ve passed through his corner of it, and this connection is invaluable to the Bag Factory’s efforts.

Tshepo Hlongwane is the founder and director of Brown Eyed Boy, a social entrepreneurship business that curates, sources and exhibits artworks of talented South African artists. He curated the cutting edge Grolsch ArtFridges, a campaign that allowed emerging South African artists and photographers to create bespoke artworks using SMEG fridges as their canvas.

Tshepo has over 7 years of experience working in banking where he mainly focuses on liquidity and risk management for the foreign currency balance sheet within the Corporate and Institutional Banking division of Investec Bank in Johannesburg. He co-founded the Bokamoso Cross Mentorship Program, a program aimed at providing mentorship, career guidance and life skills to high school learners. He also co-founded the Young Professionals Forum (YPF), a vehicle to encourage active citizenry among young professionals from all sectors of the economy. Tshepo is passionate about empowering youth and promoting talented South African artists.

Zaheda is a Masters graduate in Theatre & Film Studies. Her experience in the media, arts and cultural industries spans 20 years. She was the first Associate Director of the Nelson Mandela Center at the Museum for African Art in New York, overseeing all programming; public and education programs, panel discussions, artists’ talks, literature festivals, conferences, and exhibitions.  In 2014 she was Director of Literature curating the Indo-American Arts Council’s Inaugural South Asia Literature Festival. Zaheda currently resides and works in New York City offering valuable different perspectives on the art world.

Pierre was born in Brussels where he went to school at the Jesuite College of Saint Michel before qualifying as an Architect and Town Planner at Saint Luc. During his time in Brussels, Pierre was captain of a soccer team, played tennis, got selected for the Belgian Junior Team in Bridge and went to the “Academie des Beaux-Arts d’ Ixelles ”. He came to South Africa once his degree completed. He had overheard a conversation in which was mentioned that there was a need for architects in South Africa. He decided to follow the opportunity. Pierre got married 15 years later to Lynn and they have two children: Camille and Jordan.

Zachary Isdahl’s career has spanned nearly two decades – traversing the fields of international development, research, and arts and culture. His expertise includes leading the operations of multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural programs and projects and successfully building collaborative partnerships in complex and politically sensitive environments.
Zachary has leveraged his stakeholder and cross-cultural management expertise to serve as the director of several international development initiatives across more than 15 countries in Africa, Oceania, Europe, and the Middle East. His recent work includes positions with the World Bank, the Universities of California, and the ILO (UN agency).
Zachary is also a passionate champion of contemporary African art. Through Africa Facing Art and as a board member of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios – Zachary promotes visuals artists from across the African continent and encourages increased synergy between international collections, artists, and cultural institutions.
He holds an MBA from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, with a specialization in international organizations, and a B.S. in sociology and marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sara Hallatt became the Director of the Bag Factory in March 2011 and left in May 2017. She has extensive project management and marketing experience. Sara was part of the team that produced the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and has produced events around the world. She has an honors degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand and a post graduate diploma in Business Management. In 2015 Sara was as part of the Mandela Washington Fellowship where she attended Northwestern University in Chicago.

Tladi Marumo is a South African admitted attorney. He has years of experience having practiced in leading South African and international corporate law firms: Webber Wentzel, Hogan Lovells and Norton Rose Fulbright; and as a Legal Consultant to Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr. He is a Director at Marumo At Law Advisory. In addition to corporate law practice, he is a human rights lawyer. He serves as a Director on the Board of the Good Law Foundation, which promotes and advocates for the rule of law, human rights and democracy.

He holds a BA (Political and International Studies, and Legal Theory), LLB, LLM (Constitutional Class Action Litigation) (Rhodes University), and a Postgraduate Certificate: Prospecting and Mining Law (University of the Witwatersrand). A legal academic, Tladi was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow and Lecturer at the Rhodes University Faculty of Law. He is currently a U.S. Fulbright Scholar and a Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D) candidate in International Human Rights Law, at the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Centre for Civil and Human Rights, Indiana, U.S.A.

Tladi is a proponent of the promotion of South African creative arts, arts investment and dialogue. He further advises on law in the art industry.

Photo by Musa Nxumalo.

Seejarim is best known for her translation of ordinary and domestic objects to artworks that are sometimes quirky, sometimes serious, sometimes monumental but never banal.

Unsurprisingly her work has a distinctly Dadaist influence through the use of common materials like safety pins, wooden pegs, irons and brooms. Her compositions result from repetitive acts of mark making alluring to themes related to time, chance, space and displacement.

Through the process of completing numerous large scaled public art commissions, and a deep commitment to social development Usha often brings these two worlds together to create ambitious participatory and community based public art projects.

The dichotomy of her common interest in art and human connectivity is perhaps aptly expressed through her simultaneous qualification in Laughter as well as a Master’s Degree in Fine Art.