Arts at UJ
UJ ARTS & CULTURE At any given point in the year, UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, is in motion. A production moves through rehearsal; an exhibition takes form; a performance meets its audience. This movement is constant. It defines the programme not as a series of events,
Me When You Arrive and Adulting 101 targeted at students are a direct response to issues of safety, awareness and wellbeing and use the theatre as a space for reflection and accountability. Music and storytelling continue this movement layering the programme with different disciplines and experiences. Home At Last: A Tribute to Bheki Mseleku , by Bokani Dyer, holds legacy and innovation at the same moment, while platforms like The Moth bring personal narrative into a shared public space. This approach is closely tied to a broader positioning – one that aligns the arts with the University’s focus on Societal Impact, Innovation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Sustainable Development Goals. For UJ Arts & Culture creativity is not separate from these frameworks but takes centre stage in how they are understood and explored. The work becomes a way of thinking through complexity, of engaging with social realities, and of imagining alternative futures.
PROJECTS SUCH AS TEXT ME WHEN YOU ARRIVE AND ADULTING 101 TARGETED AT STUDENTS ARE A DIRECT RESPONSE TO ISSUES OF SAFETY, AWARENESS AND WELLBEING AND USE THE The scale of the programme is reflected in the work it carries. This year, international collaborations, such as Gregory Maqoma’s Bantu , presented alongside Germaine Acogny’s Joséphine , brought continental and diasporic conversations to the university. Productions like The Bacchae: An African Choral Ballet that will be presented at the Joburg Theatre extend that dialogue outward, placing UJ within broader performance networks while positioning its students and artists at the centre of that exchange. But the programme does not only operate on a large scale, but it also aims to remain intentional and grounded keeping close to the lived reality of students. Projects such as Text but as a sustained practice of making, presenting and engaging across the University of Johannesburg. It begins long before an audience arrives – in rehearsal, in conversation, in the shaping of an idea. By the time the lights go up, the work has already moved through multiple hands, disciplines, and perspectives. What the audience encounters is only one moment within a much longer process. This process plays out continuously through the theatres and galleries and these shared spaces become sites where students, artists and audiences engage with work as it is being developed and presented.
THEATRE AS A SPACE FOR REFLECTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY.
Gregory Maqoma’s Bantu at KWK Theatre: Mr Gregory Maqoma’s play; Bantu at KWK Theatre
ALUMNI IMPUMELELO
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