Arts and culture department’s highlights for the year

Deputy director Alba Letts shared some of the department’s 2014 highlights residents can look forward to.

First and foremost is the upcoming exhibition The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, to be held at Newtown’s Museum Africa from 13 February until 29 June.

The exhibition will offer an encyclopedic view of apartheid and photographic practice, and represents the culmination of over a decade of research supported by New York’s International Centre of Photography.

The exhibition will include the work of more than 70 South African photographers and artists, 27 films and a book.

Letts said there would also be numerous new exhibitions at the museum, at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and Newtown’s Workers’ Museum.

“We’re also starting major preparations for the 100-year celebration of the Johannesburg Art Gallery,” she said.

In addition, the department will also offer its large-scale annual celebration of the visual and performing arts, Arts Alive, in September.

The department will also work on an Africa Day programme, and will confirm details later this year.

Letts said preparations would also be made for firm favourites on the city’s cultural calendar, including National Remembrance Sunday in November, the Joburg Carnival, planned for all city regions in December, and a New Year’s Eve concert.

The department’s Eric Itzkin said the unveiling of a heritage plaque at Soweto’s Regina Mundi Catholic Church was also being planned.