Cape Town nonprofit Orange Art Project draws foster children into world of creativity

A blue-eyed figurine with a necklace of black beads; a landscape at sunrise; an owl painstakingly painted on cardboard cutouts. These are just some of the creations of the beneficiaries of the Orange Art Project, a nonprofit company in Cape Town that facilitates art sessions for children living with foster families.

The founder and chairperson of the project, Jill Trappler, believes that creativity is an essential part of learning – a philosophy that has driven her organisation’s interventions since it was founded during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

The Orange Art Project has partnered Home from Home, a cluster foster care scheme, to run weekly, mentored art lessons in 22 homes across areas including Observatory, Masiphumelele, Fish Hoek and Ocean View, reaching about 120 children.

“It’s education of another form in that it’s not outcomes-based. The group activities need to be relatively playful, and also the artists listen to the children and respond to what they’re wanting to do. And at the same time, encourage them to do other things, even if it’s through games,” Trappler explained.

The organisation works with 13 practising artists who act as mentors for the children during sessions. These artists do not follow a formal curriculum, but rather respond to the needs of the young beneficiaries and their foster families, creating a safe, free space for them to experiment creatively with various media and ideas.

“The commitment from the mentors is what really matters, because it’s a friendship that doesn’t entail being a school teacher or a social worker... and I think that’s why the model has remained quite strong,” Trappler said.

“The mentors have become more skilled in their interaction and engagement with the children… [The Orange Art Project] is not only educational – it’s an upskilling and employment programme, which is all the things that we need.”

The Orange Art Project has also facilitated outings to art and culture spaces for the children, including the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the South African Jewish Museum, Kirstenbosch and the Irma Stern Museum.

Growth through art

Indiego Botha, one of the Orange Art Project mentors, started working with the organisation in late 2025, and currently runs sessions in two foster homes, in Zonnebloem and Observatory.

“When I started off in Zonnebloem, I wanted to let the children know that you can actually make money from art… I introduced them to my medium, which is printmaking, and told them that you can print on [items like] T-shirts and tote bags,” Botha said.

“I love opening them up to conversations about what they think they would enjoy… and then I take it from there.”

Other mediums Botha has planned sessions around include tie-dyeing, painting and sewing.

“As much as I want to teach them mediums, I also just want to hear what they want to learn. Because it’s not my session, it’s our session… That’s one thing I love about the Orange Art Project. We don’t teach based on a curriculum, but on intuition and relationships that we have. They really give us an open platform as practising artists, so we can pass on our knowledge and the experience,” she said.

Botha noted that you could learn a lot about a child through the artwork they produced. She has enjoyed observing her pupils’ character development, as well as coming to understand their artistic preferences.

“I have grown from the programme… I’ve had some workshops before but they’ve always been on an inconsistent or casual basis. Now, I actually feel like… a teaching artist, because I am apprenticing artists,” she said.

“We’ve grown to be a family. I love their honesty with me… It has given me a sense of responsibility as a mentor, and professionally it has given me confidence in teaching people.”

Budding creatives

Florida Banisi, a Home from Home foster mother in Delft, looks after four children. She told Daily Maverick that the Orange Art Project sessions were an opportunity for both fun and skills development for the youngsters. When she has time, she even joins in.

The visits to local galleries were particularly exciting for the children because it inspired some of them to express an interest in being artists when they grew up.

“They are always excited to go there because they say they are going to see the ‘olden days art’ in the gallery. They learn more about creating art,” she said.

Over the years the Orange Art Project has received support from the National Lotteries Commission and the Western Cape government, as well as a few private donors. While funding can be a challenge, Trappler said the organisation does the most it can for those in need and makes money “go a long way”.

The children can choose to give the artworks they create to the Orange Art Project to be included in its online catalogue. When a person donates funds in exchange for a particular piece, 60% of the money goes to the young artist who created it, and 40% goes to sustaining the nonprofit’s interventions.

Spin Street exhibition

Between 2 and 29 April the Orange Art Project will hold an exhibition of about 90 works by renowned Cape Town artist Judy Conway at the Spin Street Gallery in the city’s CBD.

The proceeds of the sale of Conway’s work will go towards supporting the nonprofit organisation.

Conway, who is originally from the US, used to be a board member for the Orange Art Project. She said her support for the organisation was founded in a commitment to combating inequality, as well as her belief that not everyone learns in the same way.

“I can give you my own experience. I was from a very literate, education-oriented family, and that’s not the way I learned. I’m a more visual person, and so I flunked out of school, much to the astonishment of my family, and somehow managed to get a master’s degree in library science. And then I realised that books are not the be all and end all, much as I wish they were,” she said.

The Orange Art Project allowed children to express themselves in a way they did not necessarily have access to before, added Conway. DM