Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre, South Africa: Controversy and Renown, Successes, and Shortcomings

This paper reviews the development of the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre, in South Africa, open for just over a decade. The run-up to the project's launch was not without difficulties, caused by both community and official mandates. Yet despite achieving a measure of critical acclaim the site has only niche market appeal. Sustainability was possible only after securing operational subsidization. As that support begins to be scaled down, Wildebeest Kuil, as a case study, compels an assessment of its specific successes and shortcomings relative to issues of a more general nature that enhance or impede the role of South African archaeological sites in economic development.