Our Team
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The heartbeat of the KRUX community is our gathering together. Find out about gatherings near you and join us!
JB Krohn
Dr James Krohn is a theological educator, former pastor, and the founder-director of KRUX. He studied visual arts before moving on to focus on Theology; first studying under Dr JI Packer in Canada and later completing a DTh on Calvin’s Trinitarian vision in Stellenbosch. He has served on the faculties of the Bible Institute of South Africa and George Whitefield College, and as sessional lecturer at Regent College in Canada. He is active in theological education in Southern Africa, and a Fellow of the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge. James is married to Corli, and together with their five children they are avid outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers.
Keywords: Theology, teaching, visual faith
Corli Krohn
Corli grew up among the oak trees of Stellenbosch, where she met James while she was a cellist and student at the university. She has worn a few hats, including that of coffee barista in Vancouver; lecturer of Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew at University; pastor’s wife; and home educator of five lively children. Corli believes in living with the tent flaps wide open, and in feeding bodies, minds and spirits.
Keywords: Hospitality, family, story
Lieschen Venter
Lieschen Venter lives in Stellenbosch and is a lecturer of Operations Research, the so-called “science of better”. She obtained her Master’s degree in the economic management sciences funded by a bursary awarded by Sasol Technology. Contractually bound by the bursary, she relocated to Secunda, Mpumalanga to work for Sasol’s Decision Support group. During this time she was also privileged to head up a local congregation church planting team that is still strongly active today. It was during her church planting years that she was able to complete an Honours degree in Theology. After returning to Stellenbosch as an academic, she recently completed her PhD. Her dissertation describes a quantitative simulation model of the South African basic education system using a system dynamic modelling approach. Lieschen describes herself as perpetually online and an information glutton. She has a keen interest in both local and global politics, popular culture trends, cultural expressions of ideology, behavioural pattern recognition, and trend prediction using popular media. She hopes to remain a lifelong student as she continues to search for a satisfying theory of everything.
Keywords: Culture, technology, trends, animals
Heidi Salzwedel
Heidi Salzwedel is an artist and educator living in Cape Town. She enjoys being in nature and
lives in this city because she can be surrounded by mountains, oceans and forests. She studied
Fine Art at Rhodes University and did her MA through Stellenbosch University. Her time is spent
juggling a number of passions; art-making, teaching, writing, research, and developing
community. Heidi has exhibited her work both nationally, and internationally in Italy, the
Netherlands and the Philippines. She is one of the co-founders of the annual Krux Artist
Gathering and co-founded 40 Stones along with OM South Africa. She is currently working with
Inspiro Arts Alliance (formerly OM Arts) to develop arts and ministry training opportunities in
Southern Africa. Heidi also is the Arts Editor for The Big Picture Magazine, a quarterly publication of the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology (a partner of Krux).
Keywords: Education, conceptual art, faith, ministry, community.
Otto Bam
Otto Bam is a student of literature and theology, a musician, and an aspiring poet from Stellenbosch, South Africa. He holds a master’s degree in English Studies from the University of Stellenbosch and is currently studying towards a master’s degree in Religion and Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
His research focuses on the role of what has been called “liturgical language” and “ritual poetics” in literature from the Romantic era through to the Postmodern. In his most recent work, he investigates the place and function of prayer and ritual in the work of Seamus Heaney and T. S. Eliot respectively. Otto believes that valuable scholarship demands a creative response to the encounter with art, and is committed to cultivating a poetic sense, rooted in the practice of his faith, alongside his academic endeavours.
As a musician, Otto has released a full-length album, an EP and multiple singles under the alias Oddo Bam. He is currently working on new music that draws on the liturgy of the Anglican church he attends in Edinburgh, translating it into his characteristically diaphanous singer-songwriter sound.
Otto is passionate about bringing together theology and the arts, having served as organiser of and speaker at Krux’s much-loved annual artist gathering in 2021.
Keywords: Music, literature, theology
Servaas Hofmeyr
Servaas is fascinated by human existence experienced as ‘souls in exile’, our consequent desire for home and meaning, and the role of storytelling and imagination in our search for identity. He is committed to interpret and better understand cultural narratives by which individuals, communities and societies make sense of reality and their own humanity, and from which they aspire to live free and meaningful lives. After completing his undergraduate studies in the spectacular town of Stellenbosch, in the heart of the Cape Winelands, he worked in finance in the wine industry. With the call to engage more seriously with the questions of existence and ethics came the opportunity to pursue postgraduate studies in Theology (SATS) and Philosophy (Buckingham). While reading for his philosophy degree, he served as a non-residential member in the Community of St Anselm. An appreciation for the role of formational practices, habits and disciplines as a necessary part of becoming human was awakened during this time. He is currently employed as a marketing analyst at a tech company while continuing to pursue his existential questions in community as an organiser, facilitator and conversation partner in various discussion groups. Servaas is married to Abigail, who directs the residency programme at East Mountain with her specific focus on spiritual formation. Servaas’ thoughts are further displayed on his personal blog, wayward, and often inspired by Søren Kierkegaard, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Paul Ricoeur, Marilynne Robinson, Roger Scruton, Tom Wright, Sarah Coakley, Malcolm Guite, John Dickson, Mark Sayers… to name a few.
Keywords: Philosophy, culture, identity, technology
Elbie Visser
Elbie Visser is a fine artist, wife and mother. Born and raised in Namibia, Elbie moved to South Africa in 2009 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria. In 2014, Elbie attended a three-month faith-based arts residency in Northern Italy where her interest in the arts and faith space deepened. She then worked for renowned South African sculptor Angus Taylor at Dionysus Sculpture Works for three years after completing her degree, where she learned extensively about bronze sculpture. She founded Foundri Jewellery in 2015, a sculptural and fine metal studio. Currently, Elbie lives in Stellenbosch with husband Marko and daughters Emilie and Avah. She joined the KRUX community in 2019 and has found it deeply enriching to serve, connect with and learn from the other artists, theologians, creatives and thinkers.
Keywords: Art, hospitality, design, business
Ydi Coetsee
Ydi completed a MA in Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University and has been published in the South African Journal of Art History. Since her studies, Ydi has participated in numerous notable art exhibitions, competitions and art-and-faith initiatives. In 2015 she visited the English L’Abri community, which re-established her faith in Christian orthodoxy. She grew up as a pastor’s daughter, and her parents’ ministry among the poor and disenfranchised played a big role in her upbringing. Adventure travel, classical music and her outdoorsy husband, August, keep her sane amid life’s challenges.
Keywords: Painting, art history, theology, Africa
Latest Posts
A vision of work
A Christian Vision of Work “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” A Sermon Preached on...
A vision of work
A Christian Vision of Work “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” A Sermon Preached on...
Potlucks and protocols – KRUX and the bureaucratic world
In my second year of undergraduate study at university the computer science lecturer forgot about one of the lectures. He was lost in some algorithm that caught his fancy the night before and made him forget to go to bed at all. He arrived at the lecture hall twenty...
A broken beauty
A tall woman with greying hair, gentle eyes and a comfortable dress, I approached Annelie Venter at the walkabout to her exhibition at the Bellville Arts Association gallery. Annelie’s exhibition “Pause” contains almost 100 small works in oil and acrylic. After years of painting mostly nature scenes, this solo is the first more clearly autobiographical.
Silence, space and time, a reflection on the Cederberg
Stephen Watson was a South African academic, poet and writer who passed away in 2011. His prose and poetry were primarily inspired by the city of Cape Town, but it was in the Cederberg that he found what he calls la querencia, a Spanish word referring “to a place on...