THE TEAM

Ngaire Blankenberg founded Institute of Creative Repair in 2023 and Creative Repair Studio in 2024. Prior to this, she was the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and a globally renowned ‘museum doctor’. Named one of the most influential people in the art world in 2023 (Observer), she has advised more than 55 museums around the globe, is a TEDX speaker, author of 2 books and a regular speaker, lecturer and commentator on museums and transformation. 

Gilbert Balinda’s history is one that spans the vastly divergent cultural influences of East Africa and Europe, with the 1994 Rwandan genocide serving as the catalytic bridge between his childhood in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, and his family’s eventual asylum in Belgium. He embarked on his professional career in South Africa, where he worked with celebrated architectural firm Mashabane Rose Associates until 2015 before co-founding Johannesburg-based interior-architectural studio Laterale with fellow St-Luc graduate Timothy Vandenbroeke. From 2017 onwards, he served as heritage specialist and head of architectural design on such lauded South African cultural and civic projects as Freedom Park in Tshwane (World Architectural Festival Winner with MRA), the Taung World Heritage Centre, the Nelson Mandela Capture Site and Mandela Exhibition at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.

Balinda is a regular visiting lecturer and critic at the University of Witwatersrand, the University of Johannesburg and the University of Pretoria. 

Mbali Mthethwa is a Johannesburg-based artist, researcher and organiser She is also the founder of The Herd—a multi-award-winning, woman-led collective that creates contemporary design pieces that are deeply rooted in African traditional artisanal techniques and culture. She has worked closely with talented women crafters from Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, developing pieces through The Herd that have garnered commissions from the South African Mint, NIKE, and the South African Human Sciences Research Council. The Herds’ work has also been showcased internationally at prestigious platforms such as the Sharjah Architecture Triennial (2023), the Biennale Architettura 2023 in Venice (as part of Kate Otten Architecture’s installation), Maison & Objet in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum Gift Shop in New York, the Kunst Museum gift shop in Basel, and the Wereldmuseum Leiden in the Netherlands. She has collaborated with the Ninevites, Tool Box, the KZN Art Gallery, The Grateful Hearts Foundation, and the Institute of Creative Repair. 

Mthethwa’s practice is a thoughtful exploration of how creative work can envision and help build the kinds of worlds we wish to inhabit. She partners with others to investigate and experiment with systems, skills, and indigenous knowledge, reflecting on how these shape daily life, artistic expression, and ways of organising. 

Sula works at the intersection of restorative justice, reconciliation and creative practices. She is the founder of Fibre Made, a sustainable fibre art business that creates crochet bags, accessories and handmade yarn using repurposed textiles.  She was project manager at Why me? - a UK-based NGO that delivers and promotes Restorative Justice.  Sula is a trained restorative facilitator who has worked with young people in schools delivering “conflict clinics'' aimed at addressing conflict between students, and upskilling them to address conflict in their own contexts.