Who in their right mind would visit an art gallery in their home town?  Visiting art galleries is what you do when you visit one of the world’s great cities, such as London, New York, Paris, Moscow. And Johannesburg. Johannesburg, amazingly enough, is gaining a reputation as the new kid on the block when it comes to excitement about art.  The great masters of the world have been around for a long, long time, and have been gawked at by audiences for hundreds of years.  Johannesburg, on the other hand, is fresh and vibrant and has a culture of art and artists that is gaining international respect. So while the rest of the world puzzles over modern art in the form of unmade beds, bejewelled skulls and sheep in formaldehyde, South Africa has a whole range of exciting art that is still, well, art. No-one has realised this better than Chavi Caplan, art historian and one-woman crusader to turn our art into as much of a tourist attraction as any Louvre or Royal Academy.  Chavi (pronounced Gawie) runs art tours in Johannesburg, taking visitors on an arty amble from established galleries to more avant-garde little holes-in-the-wall. “The whole point of my tours is to make art accessible,” she says.  “We want to get away from the whole idea that art is hifalutin and needs to be explained, and has its own secret language.  Instead, each person will see what they want to see, and enjoy their own experience.  The tours are a lot of fun.” Chavi first enlisted the co-ooperation of gallery-owners, and then chalked out a route. “Every single tour is different,” she says.  “The choice of galleries depends on which of them are having exhibitions.  It worked out very well, as a tour, because when I first mapped out the route I did it geographically – so we first start in Rosebank (because it is accessible to everyone) and then make our way towards the city centre, visiting galleries on the way.  But by co-incidence the more well-established galleries are in Rosebank, and the edgier galleries are in the city, so the tour really goes from the more mainstream art to the more cutting edge stuff.  It’s a great way for people to first see the familiar, and then get introduced to the unfamiliar.” South African art is going through the very exciting stage of ‘finding itself’.  So you would have world-famous and established names such as Irma Stern and Gerard Sekoto, but then up would pop a whole new genre:  murals made out of bits of plastic, sculptures made up of thousands of other tiny sculptures, African art given a Western spin, and vice versa.  The vibrancy and colour of an emerging society is turning all the old concepts of ‘pretty pictures’ on its head.  (Not that I – or anyone else – has anything against ‘pretty pictures’ I must add hastily…. Pierneef, in my unartistic opinion, depicted our landscapes in a way that has been much copied but never bettered). But what really sets South African art apart from other countries, is that we still have something to say.  Our art has a sense of joy and freshness.  On its most basic level, who can fail to be amused and impressed by the vastly elaborate makarapa (the miners’ hard hats that have been turned into mini-landscapes); the colourful depictions of township and rural life, the poignant reflections on our past. “Our tour is designed to showcase galleries and precints that visitors – both local and international – would not encounter any other way,” says Chavi.  “But it’s not limited to art lovers, it is intended to appeal to everyone, no matter how small their interest in art.  It’s also a chance for people to see Johannesburg in a completely different light, through the eyes of artists and designers rather than the usual sight-seeing or business.” So how does an art historian get involved in the tourism industry?  “When I graduated in Cape Town, I formed a fun company with a few friends and we used to run pub crawls.  They were very successful, and gave me some experience in running tours and dealing with the public and finding out what they want.  At the same time, I wanted to share my love of South African art with visitors – as well as promote our local art -  so decided to expand the tours into another area.  So you could say we approach the ‘arty’ tours with a ‘pub crawl’ attitude!” Sometimes the artists themselves are willing to meet with visitors and explain their works. “The art scene in South Africa is definitely growing,” says Chavi.  “The World Cup was a huge boost as it brought a lot of visitors who were interested in our art.  It also encouraged our artists to come up with new ideas for this international showcase.  People are definitely becoming more interested – both in creating art and in seeing it.” The tours run on the first and last Saturday of every month, and programmes and more detail can be obtained from the website #http://www.afrocentrist.co.za