30 Mar 2015

The creative arts industry has potential to help diversify the economy.

However, for one to make it in the creative arts industry, they have to combine luck with work hard. The creative art industry has potential to grow beyond what it is today and Botswana artists must be commended for not giving up on what they love.

Audrey Kgobe (26) takes her art seriously. “I have always known that I wanted to be a photographer and I remember when I was doing Standard 7, I had a chat with my father and I told him I wanted to be a photographer,” said Audrey, adding that her father said it was something she could do as a hobby and not a career. 

She said after that chat, she decided to look at other careers and opted for accounting after she completed her Form 5.

“A year into accounting, I dropped out because I had no passion for it. Even though I love Maths, I realised accounting was not for me. I then tried Information Technology (IT) and I quit that too. Eventually, I went on to study photography. Currently, I am still studying at Limkokwing University and I also work with The Empire as one of their photographers,” she said.

Audrey further said she believed that for one to learn more and excel, they should not confine themselves within the four walls of a classroom, but rather go out to explore and gain knowledge as well as experience.

About female artists in Botswana, Audrey said she believed there were a lot of talented female artists in the country but they were not coming forth to show their talents. “Some women feel like they are not good enough, yet with art there is never enough and there is never good or bad, everyone sees art in different ways,” she said.

Audrey said, “art is visual communication, a different voice to different minds and everyone has their own interpretation.” She stressed the need to stage competitions, expos and exhibitions to empower women artists.

Quizzed on future plans, she said she planned to do art full time and eventually publish a book containing all of her best work, adding that she was yet to enter art competitions. She said she once considered entering an art competition but decided against it as she felt her work was not up to standard, but this year she hoped to get over that fear and share her work.

Talking about the art environment in Botswana, Audrey compared art to any other environment where women had to work twice as hard as men to prove their capability.

“One major challenge, we face is trying to get people to appreciate our work as individuals, people seem not to want to appreciate art for its worth, but rather out of pity,” she said.

Audrey said there was not much art appreciation in Botswana apart from foreigners and other artists. “Your average Motswana does not appreciate art and for this to change, art should start being taken seriously from as early as primary school,” she said.

She said the other challenge they faced as female artists was breaking into the industry straight from school, as companies and corporations did not see the need to hire fresh faces. “Art is beautiful and can be healing in so many ways and it is high time that we shared it with our fellow citizens,” she said.