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In May 2001, after eleven years as director of the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Marilyn Martin was appointed director of Art Collections for Iziko Museums of Cape Town, an amalgamation of government funded museums. Prior to her career in the museum sector she was senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand.

She was a member of the National Arts Council from 1997 to 2004, she was a trustee of the Arts and Culture Trust from its inception until 2007. Her biographical listings include Who’s Who of Southern Africa and The International Who’s Who of Women. She featured in the 2006 Mail & Guardian publication The Y’ello Book of South African Women and the 2007 and 2008 The Book of South African Women. The books feature more than 300 women, described as a “who’s who of South Africa’s leading women”.

Martin has curated exhibitions of South African art in Mali (1994 and 1996), Denmark (1996), France (1997), the USA (2002 & 2003) and for the 2002 São Paulo Bienal. She was co-curator for the exhibition Picasso and Africa, which was held at the Standard Bank Gallery and the Iziko South African National Gallery in 2006. She has served on panels for the Dakar Biennale (2000), the DaimlerChrysler Awards for visual artists (1999 and 2001) and the DaimlerChrysler Award for Architecture Advisory Board (2006). She was a consultant for the art works in the Cape Town International Convention Centre. She is a board member of the Forum for African Arts. Martin lectures throughout South Africa and participates in national and international conferences and selection panels. In 2006 she attended two important events in Paris: the official opening of and round table discussions at new Musée du Quai Branly and a colloquium entitled ‘Maintenant l’Afrique!’, with the focus on economic development through arts and culture, organised by Culturesfrance. She was a Member of the South African Institute of Architects regional (Cape) awards panel (2007). She has twice served as president of the Alliance Française du Cap and is a longstanding member of the committee.

Martin was appointed Visiting Professor linked to the Curating The Contemporary Research Group in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, UK in 2007. Appointed acting leave replacement at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town for the second semester of 2009, in Discourse of Art I, II and III, both administratively and academically; the appointment continues in 2010.

Martin has written numerous articles on art, culture and architecture in academic journals, exhibitions catalogues, books, magazines and newspapers.

Since December 2008 Martin has a monthly column in Die Burger and is a regular contributor to Art South Africa.

In 2002 Martin was admitted to the Legion of Honour of the Republic of France at the rank of Officer.

Opgedateer/Updated: 2009-12-08

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