Events News South Africa

Hotel, graffiti crew partner to host art festival

Following on the success of the 2011 inaugural showcase, the City Of Gold International Urban Art Festival is back in Braamfontein, Johannesburg from 15 to 21 April 2012, courtesy of Grayscale, a Johannesburg based graffiti crew.

Hotel Lamunu has partnered with Grayscale in their efforts to establish Johannesburg as an arts destination for the development of local street art. "Urban art is a growing genre and we support efforts to promote this art and create a heightened awareness and appreciation for it," said Hotel Lamunu's manager Carmen Graham.

Film screenings and art tours

According to Grayscale, during the week-long festival, three large walls around inner city of Johannesburg will be painted, giving a new face to the grimy city streets. The international and local artists will be split up and mixed into four groups with each group allocated a wall. Specific themes for each wall will be discussed and conceptualised by the various groups and the murals will be executed over three days.

The individual elements that make up the week long festival include two exhibitions, large-scale mural projects, film-screenings and street art tours. The film screenings wiil take place on 18, 19 and 20 April and will be hosted by The Bioscope at Main Street Life. The street art tours will take place on 17, 18, 19 April and Grayscale will team up with Past Experiences, a travel and tourism company focusing on Johannesburg inner city tours, to facilitate street art tours around the city. There will be two different routes focusing on different parts of the city - one will cover Braamfontein and Newtown and the other Troyeville and Maboneng precinct.

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