26 May 2016

 

The University of Botswana (UB) lecturer, Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe, has encouraged artistes in the Southern  District to take advantage of government initiatives and do art as a business.

Professor Otlogetswe advised during the district arts exhibition in Kanye recently.

With the President’s Day art competitions, he said, government desired to reignite the spirit of self-reliance and encourage gifted Batswana to use their talent to eke out a living.

He advised the artistes to get in touch with the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) for assistance with business plans, Youth Development Fund (YDF) and Citizen Enterprise Development Agency (CEDA) for funding.

He said the exhibition also gave the artistes an opportunity to showcase their products, network and benchmark. 

Professor Otlogetswe advised artistes not to work in isolation. He said they could secure a better market for their products when they worked as a team.

On other issues, he said he was happy that the exhibitions were held at the Kgosi Bathoen II Museum Memorial Museum.

He said this somewhat honoured the late Kgosi Bathoen II who also loved art. He revealed that some relics, which were collected from Ga-Ngwaketse were transferred to the National Museum in Gaborone for exhibition and safe custody.

one of the judges,  Leo Molefhi, however, said he was not happy with the quality of artwork submitted this year. 

He said some categories had one entrant something that made it difficult for the panel to grade. 

He said they were interested in originality, appeal and concept presentation, among others. He warned the exhibitors that using other people’s work as if it was their own was a crime.

Molefhi likewise encouraged artistes to benchmark from others so they produced work that could compete with the best in the country. The regional coordinator, Mr Phineas Kgare, encouraged Batswana to buy art work to enable artistes to earn a living through it.

Gotlolwang Masupane, Gaolatlhe Mokoto and Matlho Gagoresepe each walked away with P3 000 prize money for emerging the winners in traditional pottery, beadwork and textiles respectively. 

Second and third position got P1 500 and P1 000 respectively. ENDS