TOOLSHED is a residency and research initiative by Kunstinstituut Melly that explores the tools we use today to build, question, and transform cultural institutions. The programme invites artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, and collectives to critically reflect on conventional institutional frameworks while developing interdisciplinary practices that expand the capacity of art spaces to engage meaningfully with their surroundings.
For its third edition, TOOLSHED welcomes the After Library (2025-), a tiny, experimental library of clothes and books, blending collective reading with speculative design and the wear of clothing, initiated by Thulile Gamedze and here in collaboration with Tlotliso Skefu.
The Library's garments are designed and produced in response to texts chosen by friends, and then the garment-book combos are loaned out for short periods to a small but growing ne