11 Sep 2016

A public art project was started in 2013 to enhance the visual art practice by giving artists a platform to showcase their artistic ability, competitiveness and craftsmanship. 

When launching the project recently, Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng, said the project was also meant to document Botswana’s cultural heritage using art. 

“It was done in order to become part of the legacy projects as Botswana is celebrating its 50^th anniversary of independence,” he said. 

He said, “public art is important in development of the creative industries sector because it gives communities opportunities to interact and learn more about art.’

Olopeng said art communicated aspects of humanity that people could not fully express through words. 

“Such expressions need not only reflect beauty but can also showcase the challenges of human experiences,” he said. 

Olopeng noted that the world had moved away from presenting cultural heritage in closed spaces, but rather allowed its communities to interact more with the world they lived in. 

He informed people that Botswana had an opportunity to participate in the British Airways project where one of the artists, Qoise from Kuru painted the British Airways tail. 

Furthermore, Olopeng said the public art project started at the Central Prison in Gaborone.

This changed the prison environment to present, a true and therapeutic rehabilitation centre to the prison community and particularly to the inmates who were given an alternative to the solitude environment of the prison walls. 

The ministry, he said, had extended the programme to different places such as Molepolole, Kanye, Mochudi and Gaborone, where things such as silos were identified since they were significant in the past socio-economic of our history especially in the agricultural sector. 

“The project will in future extend to Maun and Pitsane to mention a few,” he said. 

The project involved over 20 artists. ENDS