One of Cape Town’s busiest pedestrian routes has a new reason to slow down. Alpha Street Gallery has transformed the corner of Alpha Street and Lower Loop Street into a free outdoor photography exhibition, bringing together images from across Africa for commuters, residents and visitors to discover.
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A gallery without walls
Around 8,600 people walk along Alpha Street between Cape Town Station and the V&A Waterfront every weekday. Now, part of that daily route has been turned into an open-air photography exhibition.
The Mission for Inner City Cape Town has launched Alpha Street Gallery at the corner of Alpha Street and Lower Loop Street, creating a free public exhibition focused on African stories, creativity and urban life.
The project brings together two photography collections, Unsung Heroes and City in Motion, in a collaboration between Mission for Inner City Cape Town, ICLEI Africa through its Rise Africa platform and the EU-funded AfriFoodlinks project, SJ Artists and Orms.
Rather than asking people to visit a traditional gallery, the exhibition puts the work directly into the path of people already moving through the city.
Putting photography into the everyday
Alpha Street Gallery forms part of Mission for Inner City Cape Town’s wider Inner City Art Routes initiative, which uses public art to change how people experience the CBD.
The idea is simple: make the city more interesting to walk through, give people reasons to pause and encourage them to spend more time engaging with their surroundings.
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For Brad Armitage, co-founder of Mission for Inner City Cape Town, public spaces should serve a purpose beyond simply getting people from one destination to another.
“Cities are remembered because of how they make people feel. Public spaces should do more than simply move people from one place to another. They should spark curiosity, encourage people to stop, connect and experience the city differently. Alpha Street Gallery is another example of how creative placemaking can transform an ordinary route into somewhere people genuinely want to spend time.”
Two collections, one city route
The exhibition features two collections curated by Ruby Schalit from ICLEI Africa and Shani Judes from SJ Artists, with both exploring different aspects of life and experience in African cities.
Unsung Heroes was developed through Afrifoodlinks’ #AfricanCityFoodMonth photography competition. The collection features winning images selected from more than 180 submissions from photographers across Africa.
The photographs focus on the people working behind urban food systems, including informal traders, community growers, researchers, educators and custodians of traditional food knowledge.
City in Motion brings together photographs from six years of RISE Africa’s annual photography competitions, spanning 2021 to 2025.
The collection responds to themes including creativity, agency, urgency, everyday possibilities and African urban futures, offering different perspectives on how people experience and shape cities across the continent.
Seeing African cities through local eyes
For ICLEI Africa, the exhibition provides another way to bring stories from African cities into public view.
Ruby Schalit of ICLEI Africa said the photography competitions allow people across the continent to document their cities from their own perspectives.
“Through these competitions, people across the continent show us their cities through their own eyes, and the people, places and everyday experiences that shape them. Bringing these images together helps us see African urban life in all its diversity and displaying them in the heart of Cape Town means those stories can now become part of thousands of people’s everyday journey through the city.”
Taking art beyond the gallery
The project also builds on the existing partnership between SJ Artists and Orms, which has previously brought outdoor photography exhibitions to the Sea Point Promenade.
The collaboration reflects a wider move towards making art more accessible by taking it into the public spaces people already use.
Shani Judes, founder of SJ Artists, said public art can change the relationship people have with the places around them.
“Public art helps people see themselves reflected in the places they move through every day. When our cities celebrate local stories and lived experiences, public spaces become places of pride, connection and belonging.”
Reimagining the way people move through Cape Town
For Mission for Inner City Cape Town, the gallery is part of a broader approach to improving the city through relatively small changes to public space.
The organisation’s work includes initiatives around greening, public spaces, safer streets and cultural activations, with the aim of creating an inner city that people want to explore rather than simply pass through.
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“Our vision has always been to create an Inner City that feels vibrant, welcoming and alive every day of the week. Every artwork, every activation and every investment in the public realm gives people another reason to walk, explore and reconnect with Cape Town. That’s how we build a city that is safer, more inclusive and more loved by the people who use it.”
Alpha Street Gallery is free to visit and is located at the corner of Alpha Street and Lower Loop Street. The exhibition forms part of Mission for Inner City Cape Town’s ongoing work to activate public spaces through placemaking, culture and collaboration.
Where to find it
Alpha Street Gallery is located at the corner of Alpha Street and Lower Loop Street in Cape Town’s CBD and is free to visit.
