VISI’s guide to Arts Alive

WORDS Nechama Brodie

Johannesburg lurches straight from Women’s Month into its 21st Arts Alive Festival, held during Heritage Month from 1 to 10 September. The festival is primarily a showcase of fantastic dance, music, art and drama, concentrated around the cultural hubs of Newtown (from the Bassline to the Market Theatre) and Braamfontein, with a few tendrils sneaking out into the suburbs and township areas. However, it also marks an annual “official” declaration of intent: the city belongs to all who live in it.

Night of the Museums, Wits University, Braamfontein

Although mornings and evenings are still pretty chilly in the City of Gold, the weather service is predicting balmy temperatures this week – the perfect time for an evening stroll around the campuses of Wits University, which is opening all of its museums and galleries for free on the evening of Thursday 5 September.

Night of the Museums means you can: check out an historical exhibition on the 1913 Land Act as well as a show of new works by Jeremy Wafer at the Wits Art Museum; engage with either the permanent exhibits, or the new spatial/urban planning/visual literacy project called “Walking The Corridors Of Freedom” (launching the same night) at the Origins Centre; nose-around the lesser-known Geological Museum and Life Sciences Museum, which are also in strolling distance; and investigate the university’s 50-year-old Adler Museum of Medicine, although you’ll have to pop into your car for a short trip to nearby Parktown.  

Joburg A Liveable City in Living Art, Braamfontein

With the help of students from the National School of the Arts, artist Neil le Roux will be building a sculpture of indigenous water-wise plants on Friday 6 September, on the embankment outside the school’s premises on Melle Street.  The artwork, which will be documented for the upcoming Joburg Art Fair, is intended as a deliberate, sustainable embodiment of the city bureaucrats’ Growth and Development Strategy 2040 objective to make Jo’burg a “liveable” city.  

Maboneng Township Arts Experience, Alexandra

Not to be confused with the Maboneng Precinct on the eastern side of Jo’burg’s inner city, the Maboneng Township Arts Experience evolved from the township’s historic nickname, Dark City (due to a lack of streetlights), and aims to reposition Jo’burg’s oldest township as a place of lights, turning township homes into curated gallery spaces.

The three-day Alex experience from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 September will be followed by similar programmes in Gugulethu (Cape Town) and Madadeni (KZN) in October and December respectively. The Maboneng Township Arts Experience has also been chosen as one of the projects to be featured as part of World Design Capital 2014.

Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery

The critically acclaimed travelling international multi-media art show Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art opens at the Johannesburg Art Gallery on Sunday 8 September, where it runs until 17 November.

Curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg of Art Works for Change, the exhibition has toured through the United States, Canada, Mexico and Spain, exploring the borderless territory of violence and gender – from the perspective of the political, the systemic, the community, the family and the individual – through the works of 30 international artists.

South Meets South

Shared History is a sort of mini-festival of food, music, dance, theatre and spoken word celebrating Indian history and experience in South Africa – and still feels like one of Jo’burg’s best-kept secrets! One of this year’s highlights is the South Meets South concert to be held at Mary Fitzgerald Square on Saturday 7 September, where South African icon Hugh Masekela will perform with Brazilian guitarist, pianist and composer Egberto Gismonti (Brazil), and Indian violin virtuoso Dr L Subramaniam. Also part of the Shared History programme, the Sufi Gospel Project will be performing at the Eldos Jazz Festival on Sunday 8 September, and at the Wits Theatre the following evening.

To download the full programme, visit www.arts-alive.co.za