Open Studios is a festival that opens those studios to the public this weekend, 28 and 29 May, with almost 100 artists participating. I haven’t been so excited about a story in Johannesburg since forever. My usual trope is to document how the stewards of the city have mismanaged it to smithereens over decades. But Laurice Taitz-Buntman, the urbanist and publisher of the city guide Johannesburg In Your Pocket, invited me to the press launch of the Open Studios art festival happening this weekend.
You must go. The mini-version reminded me why I love this city, rekindling its va-va voom post-pandemic. Sara Hallatt is the director of the Meta Foundation, which runs the festival. Hallatt calls Joburg “an arts city fuelled by a network of studio spaces throughout the inner city”.