UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

Wits Art Museum (WAM) - Home Page

Unknown, Igbo, Nigeria, Mmwo Maiden Spirit Mask, Wood, pigment, textile, Acquired 1979, Standard Bank African Art Collection (Wits Art Museum)

Wits Art Museum is home to an extraordinary collection of African art, including contemporary and historical art from South Africa and art from West and Central Africa. It hosts a dynamic program of events and art exhibitions. The Museum is one of Johannesburg's premier tourist attractions, along with the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill. It is part of the Wits University Cultural Precinct, just three blocks from Nelson Mandela Bridge. WAM is in the hip, regenerating area of Braamfontein, which is also home to many students, interesting shops and places to eat. WAM's cafe is a fun place to meet friends and enjoy delicious food and coffee.

  
Jazz Band at Wits Art Museum Endowment Launch Event   Wits Art Museum   Meaning Motion Nathaniel Stern Scripted Wits Art Museum 

WAM Endowment Auction  

   Susan Woolf - Taxi hand signs: Symbolic landscapes of public culture  

Meaning Motion: Nathaniel Stern and Tegan Bristow

WAM celebrated it's first birthday with a fundraising auction of contemporary South African art.

An endowment to support the ongoing development of the museum was launched. All works were donated specifically for this purpose by artists and collectors.

Over R5,5 million was raised from the sale of artworks and pledges. A huge thank-you to our generous supporters, Bidvest and Peregrine Securities for their sponsorship of the event, and Strauss & Co for conducting the auction.

View the online catalogue (PDF format, 4.8 Mb).

For more information please contact Lesley.SpiroCohen@wits.ac.za


  

12 June to 14 July 2013

In this body of work, Susan Woolf has explored and documented the system of informal hand signals that commuters use to access mini-bus taxi transport. She has also created a taxi hand-sign language for blind people that both blind and sighted people can experience. The works engage with the socio-political and economic landscape of which the taxi industry is a part.

This exhibtion is part of her Phd work in the Wits Department of Fine Arts.

A TALKABOUT for children takes place on Sat 15 June at 12h00.

The artist will present an adult TALKABOUT on Sat 22 JUne at 12h00.

For more information contact Leigh Blanckenberg, Education Curator 011 717 1378

 

 

 

 

  

13 June to 18 Aug 2013

Nathaniel Stern and Tegan Bristow are two highly innovative interactive digital artists whose work explores how movement makes meaning.

Their art incorporates cutting edge digital technologies like Microsoft Kinect. The appearance of the artworks is dependent on visitors moving in front of the technologies. The public's interactions make spoken word, sound, projected animation, text, drawing and video come alive and then shift and change with movement.

Adult TALKABOUTS will take place on Sat 22 June at 11h00 (Nathaniel Stern and Tegan Bristow) and Sat July 20h00 at 12h00 (Carly Whittaker).

There will be a Children's TALKABOUT on Sat 20 July at 12h00 (for families with children aged 5-10 years). There is no charge but please book for these events info.wam@wits.ac.za.