A city imagined together: Mapping Joburg at the Keyes Art Night Makers Table

11 Mar 2026

Mapping Rosebank at Keyes Art Mile. Photo: Johannesburg in Your Pocket.

Once people finished their collage it was pieced together with other's artworks. Photo: Johannesburg in Your Pocket.

Some pointed to landmarks while others referenced activities and emotions. Photo: Johannesburg in Your Pocket.

For Keyes Art Night in March 2026, Johannesburg In Your Pocket joined up with Keyes Art Mile in Rosebank for a special edition of the Makers Table focused on maps and place. Old guides from our print archive, maps of the Keyes precinct, and pamphlets on Rosebank scattered the long table in The Atrium. Visitors cut up, tore, drew, and wrote their visions, memories, and emotions around Johannesburg. The result? A dream-like assemblage of the different ways people engage with the city and remember it.

A highlight of Keyes Art Night? The Makers Table was full throughout the evening. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

For those not familiar with Keyes Art Night, it is a monthly event where the precinct's galleries and restaurants stay open late for a night of good food and even better art. Over the years one of our favourite activations of the space has been the Makers Table. Here, visitors have a chance to step out of the role of a viewer and into the shoes of the creator.

In March 2026, the Makers Table used the construction of Keyes Art Mile 2.0, the exhibition Groundwork in Gallery 1, and the maps of Titus Matiyane hugging the walls of the Atrium as a launching point for varied explorations of what the city means, how we imagine it, and how we represent it.

Whether you're a professional artist, or a meeting notes doodler, the Makers Table is open to all. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

Piecing the different artworks together. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

A kaleidoscopic vision of Rosebank and Johannesburg. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

As a publication with a deep love of and commitment to the city, we got involved by providing guides, maps, and other materials for people to create from, including old print editions of Johannesburg In Your Pocket city guide, as well as newer maps of the City Centre made with Nando's and JoziMyJozi. Visitors also had the chance to meet the current version of Jo, the JHB in Your Pocket GPT.

The chatter of the table and its energy on the night was infectious as strangers bonded over their artworks, or a small exchange of a pen or stick of glue that inspired further conversation. It was a reminder of the power that the arts and creativity have to allow us to connect as well as imagine together.

Different perspectives come together on the final map. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

Both familiar and fresh perspectives can be found on the wall at Keyes Art Mile. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

The final collage shows the assemblage of perspectives of the city. Some made a quest where you had to ride your mighty steed (the ever trusty car) to the dragon's lair in Midrand. Others re-imagined significant landscapes: Northcliff Mountain jutting out of the paper, an art island in the middle of Rosebank, and flowers and green spreading across the city (a prelude for the greening initiative of Keyes Art Mile 2.0). And there was also the familiar, the groove and nightlife of the city, traffic jams on the highway, the urgent consumption that Joburg can engender, and the frenetic busyness and lights.

Dreams appeared too. From the possibilities that Johannesburg brings to the dream-like qualities of living in a big city. A popular notion in Joburg is that you come to the city to find money, not love, and yet the collages showed that even in the chaos of Johannesburg, the romantic is never far off. With phrases such as "I found love in Johannesburg", to people pinpointing where they had their first date. Or the way that the physical structures and paths through the city inspire a fondness of memory that belies the, at times, hard surfaces and realities of Johannesburg.

Images, words, and lines make up the city. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

Titus Matiyane's map of Rosebank alongside viewers' responses. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

Make sure to visit Keyes Art Mile for the next Makers Table. Photo: Johannesburg In Your Pocket.

It is a jumble of images and words that show that the city is a dream that we are all experiencing. One which is real and in front of us, and which we all shape through our small habits and movements. Much like the collage, Joburg is not fixed but instead is constantly being made and made again by everyone in it.

If you missed out, there will be more opportunity to make your mark at Keyes Art Mile with the next Keyes Art Night on the first Thursday of every month. Keep an eye on their Instagram for other pop-ups. We’re hoping to continue working with them to bring more exciting and stimulating creative activities that get people in touch with their creative side, and prompt new ways of thinking about the city and people around us.