The GrowBox Art Project is the first acceleration project developed by AAD-Incubator. AAD-Incubator’s objective is to help grow small-community businesses with a strong social impact, through artistic creation and by involving world-renowned contemporary African artists. The GrowBox Art Project strives to fulfill the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) set by the United Nations: to eliminate hunger, ensure food security, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
The goal of the GrowBox Art Project is to expand and sustain the vision of GrowBox’s creator, Renshia Manuel. GrowBox is a social enterprise that aims to educate and support the underprivileged by creating food gardens as well as encouraging and establishing food sovereignty at home. The GrowBoxes are easily transportable planters. They are designed to allow people to grow their own vegetables locally. GrowBox makes it possible to provide complementary food sources to people living in urban areas, making up 86% of the population in Western Cape, South Africa. GrowBox has reinvented the concept of urban and peri-urban agriculture by tackling traditional agricultural challenges and offering a sustainable solution.
AAD-fund was able to get ten internationally recognized African artists involved in the GrowBox Art Project. Each artist created a unique work of art inspired by a GrowBox. These works were exhibited at Zeitz MOCAA from the 16th of February to the end of June 2019. Creative art has a powerful influence on the GrowBox project’s development, and it has brought the project international exposure as well.
Artists involved in the GrowBox Art Project: Berry Bickle (Zimbabwe), Dan Halter (Zimbabwe), Dominique Zinkpè (Benin), Frances Goodman (South Africa), Gonçalo Mabunda (Mozambique), Mary Sibande (South Africa), Monsengo Shula (Democratic Republic of Congo), Willem Boshoff (South Africa), Willie Bester (South Africa), Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu (Nigeria).