What Namibia Craft Centre is known for

The Namibia Craft Centre opened in 1990 in the Old Breweries complex on Tal Street in Windhoek. About forty craft enterprises hold retail space there, drawn from communities and projects across the country. Woven baskets, carved makalani kernels, San ostrich eggshell jewellery, Himba bracelets and embroidered linen fill the floor. The Omba Arts Trust took over its management in 2004.

The Namibia Craft Centre opened in 1990 in the Old Breweries complex on Tal Street in Windhoek, under Newveld Ventures Investment and Development Company. The Rossing Foundation took over management in 1996 and added the Omba Gallery. Kerry MacNamara Architects won an award for the design, and the rebuilt centre opened in 1997. Demand for trading space pushed a further expansion in 1999 that brought in the Hilde List Loft and the Cold Room. The Omba Arts Trust was established in 2004 and took the centre over from the Rossing Foundation. In 2009 the trust chose to concentrate on craft development, and the centre was registered separately as Namibia Arts, Craft and Design. About forty craft enterprises hold retail space under that roof. They come from distinct communities, ethnic groups, separate projects. The centre reckons that the trade supports more than 4,000 crafters and their families in some of the most rural and marginalised areas of the country. The stock reads as a map of Namibia. Woven baskets, carved makalani kernels, San ostrich eggshell jewellery, wild silk scarves, Himba bracelets, handmade paper, hand-woven carpets and embroidered linen all sit within a few metres of each other. Parking is enclosed and the building is reachable on foot. The centre describes the result as Namibia gathered under one roof.