The Arts

Bag Factory

If you harbour ambitions to explore your artistic side keep an eye on the Bag Factory website and join their sculpting and art workshops held at different times throughout the year. Resident artists offer some of the workshops and provide you with an opportunity to connect with a handful of the many artists who feed off the energy of this city. Equally exciting is the Bus Factory nearby where a variety of stimulating art projects are held during the year.

• http://www.bagfactoryart.org.za/
• http://www.newtown.co.za/heritage/view/index/bus_factory

Johannesburg Art Gallery

Organise a group of friends and create your own treasure hunt based on the Johannesburg guide to public art and monuments in the city. It will cost you the price of some bus tickets. Start at the Johannesburg Art Gallery housed in a beautiful Edward Luytens building and then travel around the city exploring the many commissioned public art works. Sculptures by William Kentridge a Wits graduate, and other artists highlight the never ending quest to explore the city’s identity. Use the Rea Vaya buses to take you on this mini tour of the city and jump on and off as you wish. Only do this tour with friends do not undertake it alone.

Johannesburg Art Gallery hours: Tues-Sun 10h00-17h00.
Entry is free.

• http://www.joburg.org.za/culture/museums-galleries/jag/about-johannesburg-art-gallery

Rosebank Galleries

South Africa has a dynamic and interesting visual arts scene. Johannesburg is home to some of the best galleries and a day spent visiting some of the better known ones will introduce you to the more established artists in the country.  Luckily most of these galleries are in Rosebank. Start at the Everard Read art gallery on Keyes Ave and then drive or walk down Jan Smuts Ave to the Goodman Gallery. If you have not gone into visual overload then head down to Moma in Parkhurst. Having built up an appetite travel back to Rosebank for lunch at Sophia’s in the Mall and indulge in mental and visual saturation with an art house movie at the Cinema Nouveau.

Metro bus 27 to Everard Read and Goodman along Jan Smuts Avenue. Metro Bus 30 down 7th Ave to MOMA and back up to Rosebank.

• http://www.everard-read.co.za/?m=1  
• http://www.goodman-gallery.com/
• http://www.gallerymomo.com/
  http://www.sterkinekor.com/#/home/
  
  

Wits Art Museum

Celebrate spring in the city with lunch at Nerina Trogon in Braamfontein then head back to Wits for a spring swim in the vast and beautiful pool. (Note you can only use the pool if you have paid your annual subscription to use it.) Alternatively visit the Wits Art Museum which has one of the finest and largest collections of African art in the country.

• http://www.wits.ac.za/wam
• http://www.narinatrogon.com/