Our Together for Pangolins evening at CIRCA Gallery in Rosebank was a raging success.

The evening started on the upper deck and Darwin Room of the Circa Gallery with glasses of wine from Painted Wolf Wine and Waterford Estate, Vergelegen sparkling wine and a delicious harvest table from Service Station Cafe. A spectacular view of the sunset over Johannesburg, a fire pit and fantastic company set the mood for the evening.

Harvest table spread from Service Station Cafe in Melville

At 6:30pm the guest went down to the Middle Gallery to view the wonderful art and enjoy a video of pangolin photos put together by John Culverwell of Adlip video services.

Christine Read opened the event, followed by co-chair, Nicci Wright, who gave an informative talk about the essential work being done by the African Pangolin Working Group.

APWG co-chair Nicci Wright

After this opening, multi-award winning writer/director of My Octopus Teacher, Pippa Ehrlich, kept the gathering captivated with a talk about her next Netflix documentary, which centres around a special relationship with a pangolin and his minder.

Pippa Ehrlich with part of her rapt audience

Susie Goodman of Strauss & Co was a fantastic auctioneer of the curated art and luxury items in our live auction. Our guest enjoyed some lively bidding using the pangolin shaped paddles especially made for us by the Aluminum Trading Group. After the auction, our guest enjoyed more food and wine.

The full thank you list

  • Mark and Christine Read and their brilliant team at Everard Read Galleries for their generosity and support.
  • Carolynne Waterhouse of Rand Merchant Bank for her guidance and indefatigable energy and enthusiasm for pangolins.
  • Susie Goodman, Jackie Murray, Keanu Crause and the rest of the Strauss & Co team for their incredible generosity and support of the online and live auctions. Especially Susie for her auctioneering talents at the live auction.
  • Guy du Toit for being inspired enough to make three enchanting bronzes of hares with pangolins especially for this event.
  • Monique Landman (Everard Read) for hanging the artworks so expertly in the CIRCA Gallery.
  • Jillian Johnson (Everard Read) whose smile lit up every conversation and was our point of contact in the management of the event.
  • Magnificent Pippa Erhlich for her enthralling talk and for the fascinating peek into the world of award-winning wildlife filmmaking.
Angus and Piet from African Massive
  • Angus Morton and Piet Modiba from Africa Massive for once again providing stellar audio-visual services.
  • Carmen vd Merwe from Service Station Café for the out-of-this-world delicious food.
  • Painted Wolf Wines for their wine and their constant support of conservation and endangered species.
  • Vergelegen for the sparkling wine.
  • Waterford Estate for wine.
  • Reidel for the all the glasses.
  • John Culverwell of Adlip video services for his beautiful videos and for technical support.
  • Douw van Heerden for being our artist in residence and creating under the spotlight on the night.
  • Peter Girdwood – making gorgeous frames from Kajima’s travelling box for Gareth’s photos of Kajima.
  • Rowena Allan for the luxurious picnic baskets.
  • Amy Irving and Demz Viljoen-Doyle for their huge help on the night.
  • Stunning auction paddles in the shape of pangolins donated by Christopher and Andy of Aluminium Trading Group.
  • All the artists, artisans and donors, who so generously supported us with artwork and who turned up to support us on the evening.
  • All the people who bought tickets to the event and bid so enthusiastically in the auction.

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The following pieces were full donations by these outstandingly generous people:

  • Christopher Greig (of Charles Greig Jewellers) who donated the Ardmore candleholders.
  • Steven John Wilkins who donated his bronze pangolin sculpture Comma.
  • Robert Rorich who donated his bronze sculpture Pangolin Boy.
  • Carolynne Waterhouse for the donations of the Noush Doll, Addo Flightless Dung Beetle, and Lion Paw, both by Robert Leggat.
  • Gareth Thomas for his donation of three photographic images and Kajima’s transport box that was used for the frames.
Gareth Thomas, photographer, talking about his special relationship with the pangolin, Kajima, who was featured in three photographs donated to the fund raiser.
  • Gillian Condy for her original Temminck’s pangolin water colour.
  • Carol Slabolepszy for her acrylic-resin Mother and Pup sculpture in silver-grey pewter finish.
  • Susan von Zahn for her sterling silver pangolin cuff.
  • Jez Prettejohn of African Pewter for the pangolin salad servers.

With the generosity of our donors and supporters we raised good funding for our work, but more than that, pangolins were very beautifully showcased, magnifying their extraordinary and unique charm. You couldn’t help but fall in love with them.