I love stories like this one. Just last week, on a couple of walls in Woodstock, Cape Town, a small group of selected young artists with names like Pavement Special, Black Koki and Fuzzy Slippers (well, some of them, the others have more normal sounding names like Xanelle, Jonx Pillemer and Dathina Mzayiya) were busy painting a series of mural art.

It's a way of celebrating local artists, mural art and the original culture within the communities in which the art is shaped.

Street art is funky. It flies in the face of the idea of a gallery as the place in which art can function. And it acts as a 'bridge'; a connection between the community in which the art functions and the rest of the world that sees the art as a reflection of the community.

And in SA that's important, as the majority of people never see the inside of a gallery, nevermind local art.

.
Spurred on by rapid urbanisation and climate change, water is set to be the world’s next major resource crisis – an issue World Water Day is drawing attention to on 22 March, 2011. With its theme of Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge it hopes to incite governments, businesses, communities and individuals to engage and address this growing issue and is something a group of passionate South Peninsula residents have taken significant heed of.

Motivated by a legacy of water issues that affect the Kommetjie, Ocean View, Capri and Noordhoek communities, the group aims to raise awareness about persistently high toxicity levels in Wildevoelvlei among the public at an event at Blue River Café, Imhoff’s Gift on 26 March.

If you missed the design indaba expo and want to take a look at some of the great green designs and products that were on display, take a look at our flickr photoset:

Space of Love: Autumn EquinoxMarch 2011 is all about spreading the love and here are some of the highlights. For more information on these events visit our events page.

Greenpop/Getaway Planting Day
12 March 2011

Getaway and Greenpop have gathered an amazing 100 trees for planting as a result of the Getaway/Greenpop competition. Now they need your help to plant those trees. If you’re interested click on the link to sign up and get ready to get your hands dirty.

Holistic hospitality – Greenstuff to educate hoteliers at Hostex 2011
13-16 March 2011, Johannesburg

While the Design Indaba Conference had some unforgettably inspiring talks the expo did not fall short either. Here are some of the cool initiatives that caught my eye at this year's Design Indaba Expo:

Umcebo: Beaded light

Pedro Reyes
Pedro Reyes, who happens to be married to Carla, is one of the most inspiring (and prolific) designers/artists we've come across. He's initiated many cool projects, a lot of which have a social message, but the one that really got our attention was "Palas Por Pistolas", literally shovels for guns. The influx of cheap weapons from the US is a huge problem: over 2000 firearms come across the border daily. There is extreme gun availability in parts of

Design Indaba conference
Designing for social change was a theme that ran deep and featured early in this year's Design Indaba Conference. Some Sprouts attended the Young Designer's Simulcast - these were the social designers we were inspired by.

Francis Kéré
Francis Kéré, who received the first standing ovation at this year's conference, is a highly talented yet humble architect who comes from the small village of Gando in Burkina Faso (West Africa.) After being approached by the village community to save their school which was near collapse Kéré and friends founded the Schulbausteine für Gando (School bricks for Gando) association in 1999.

Infecting the city

Beginning Monday 21st, it's time for Spier's fourth Infecting The City. For those who are not familiar with it: never fear, whilst contagious it is not likely to be life threatening.

Infecting The City is Africa's only Public Arts Festival and it involves transforming the public spaces of Cape Town into wonderful works of art that will help us view the city from a different and often informative perspective.

This years theme, 'Treasure', is about appreciating the wonderful gifts that Cape Town has to offer: from the wonderful variety of cultures and historical buildings to the forgotten natural resources and seemingly useless waste...this years festival is definitely worth a wander.

We've picked out a couple of events, tours and installations with an eco-friendly angle and listed them below

I am a fan of the Earth Fair Market. It's location in Tokai makes it a really easy 'pop in and grab' place to stock up on fresh, organic and local food on a Wednesday evening and Saturday morning.

And now, the indoor market is getting an outdoor equivalent in the city bowl, St George's Mall, just opposite the cathedral (what a setting).

when
Every Thursday from 12.30 pm to 6.30 pm

where
Upper St Georges Mall, off Wale Street

Jacci Simpson, the market's organiser is very excited. As she says, it's been eight months of getting approval and permits and it is the closest we will have in this country to a European style street market.

The Oude Molen Eco Village in Pinelands, Cape Town is the first and ONLY eco village set on public land on earth.

From their : Oude Molen is an unique village in Cape Town with many historic, agricultural, social, educational and cultural features. It has the first farm house ever built in SA and demonstrates how under-utilised public assets can be used in a more holistic way, providing accommodation, education, healing and employment opportunities.

Faced with possible eviction the village wants to make sure that it remains to become a National Treasure. For this reason any interested parties (that's you) are welcome to meet:

where: in the hall at the eco village
when: tonight, 1 February, 6-8pm

For comment, visit their
Find out more about the children food garden village