Montebello Design Centre

Situated beneath Devil's Peak, the Centre stands in what was once a substantial tract of woods. Described on 6 May 1652 as a, "fine, large forest of very tall, straight growing trees"[1] these lands were the hunting and grazing grounds of the Khoisan Cochoqua people. Remnants of these original forests can still be seen on the lower slopes of the mountain.

The Dutch East India Company established the brewer Ruttgert Menssink on the site in 1696.[2]

By the late 19th century the area was an outlying suburb of Cape Town. After passing through several owners, Daniel Cloete built the existing homestead in about 1875 that later became the South African College School's Michaelis House.

The adjacent face brick stables currently housing the Montebello Design Centre were built in about 1880. The complex is considered one of the finest of its period in South Africa.[3]

Cape Town brewer Anders Ohlsson purchased the estate from Cloete in 1888 and named it Montebello.[4] Subsequently he engaged the Scottish-South African architect and mayor of Cape Town, John Parker to design further additions to the stable complex. The structure remains substantially unchanged in character.

Montebello was sold to Randlord and philanthropist Sir Max Michaelis upon his return to South Africa after the First World War in 1919. His subsequent bequest and founding of the Michaelis School of Fine Art three years later in 1922 began a century long relationship between the Michaelis Family and the University of Cape Town that continues to the present day.

His son, the artist Cecil Michaelis first experimented with South African clays and kaolin in the late 1940s.[5] The commercial potential of these minerals had been hitherto unexplored.

Prior to returning to South Africa, Cecil Michaelis' 1935 founding of Rycotewood College for the arts and skilled associated trades in Oxfordshire, UK had convinced him an equivalent institution sited at Montebello would succeed in a country where much creative expression was still seen as derivative.[6]

First mooted in the 1950's[7] this ideal would take over thirty years to be realised. Finally in 1988 the building was deeded by Cecil Michaelis to the University of Cape Town to found a centre for design with particular respect for indigenous tradition.

Founded in 1993, the Centre offers classes in painting, music, ceramics, crafts and jewellery making.

The well-known ceramicist John Bauer has a studio in the old cow shed at Montebello.

For many years David Krut the noted art publisher and dealer had a studio gallery and book shop within the complex.

The Zimbabwean sculptor Right Mukore and his wood carvers have a sculpture garden at Montebello.

The shops and studios at the Centre source foodstuffs, beadwork and textiles from small entrepreneurs.

As a public benefit and not for profit organisation, the directors of the MDC maintain a creative mix of artists and tenants reflecting the original vision of Cecil Michaelis.