MAKE THE CITY GREAT AGAIN

Art and culture provide perfect avenues for opening spaces for people to enjoy. By Andrea Nagel

Pablo Picasso once wrote that the purpose of art is to wash the dust of daily life off our souls. If that’s true, then the soul of this dusty old mining town could definitely do with some proverbial washing. Some would say that all but the most visionary of investors are getting their money out of the country, not putting it in. But if New York, under the helm of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, could clean up its act, turning the city from one of the most crime-ridden in the world to one of the most squeaky clean, then surely our major cities stand a chance.

One of the ways in which to do this is to make residents of these cities proud and excited about what the country has to offer in terms of culture, diversity, innovation and imagination. Art is one of the best ways of showing all of these.

Enter not one, but three major art shows this month to coincide with the blossoms on the trees of Joburg’s urban forest. While information about these shows, namely FNB Art Joburg and the new Latitudes and Underline fairs has been pretty well publicised, there are satellite events happening over the weekend that everyone should know about too. To make things simple, we’ve created a map of Rosebank, where many of the galleries participating in FNB Art Joburg are located. Most of these events take place on Saturday, so you can make a day of it by walking from one gallery to the next, stopping for some art-themed drinking and eating along the way.