15 Nov 2017

National Gallery of Bulawayo official, Clifford Zulu has encouraged Botswana artists not to be inspired by money in doing their art but rather share their vision in telling their stories.

Speaking at a workshop organised by Thapong Visual Arts Centre for artists recently, Zulu said it was also important for artists to be able to articulate their art to potential buyers and establish dialogue regarding their work through various media such as Facebook, Twitter as well as setting up their own websites.

“How cool would it be for the winner of Thapong Artist of the Year Awards (TAYA0 to use his or her winnings and attend the Dak’Art, Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain just so they open themselves up to new possibilities?

Experiment more and visit these various renowned centres of art so as to grow, interact, share ideas and establish relationships,” he said.

Zulu said he was in Botswana to learn and that should be what every artist aspired to do.

“We can never stop learning and when you stop learning that is when you stop living.

We have to read more, interact more, have a story to tell to people about yourself and never start off by telling people how much you think your art is.

Articulate eloquently how your work came to be and your inspirations.

That way people get to know you first before anything else,” he said.

He said he was impressed with submissions for this year’s TAYA scheduled for November 23.

“It then begs the question that when one travels the world and Botswana is mentioned with regards to art, most of the art curators of the world say there is nothing and they do not know anything about the art of this country.

What is it that you can do differently to change this perspective,” he quizzed.

He noted that there were many opportunities for artists in Botswana to make it in the world of art.

“Do exchange visits, network, do residencies, symposiums, biennales, art fairs and exhibitions,” he said, adding it was important for artists to support each other.

Zulu indicated that even though some of the submissions for TAYA did not have biographies, generally he was impressed with most of the work he saw, along with other adjudicators for this year’s competition. On the other hand, Thapong Visual Arts Centre coordinator, Reginald Bakwena said such workshops had proven a good idea for artists.

“Ever since we started hosting such talks we have seen the improvement in artists’ work and their submissions have been top notch, besides a few who are still lagging behind,” he said.

He said Thapong would also host another workshop for artists at the end of this month.

“We will select a few artworks from this year’s TAYA in February next year and discuss them for the benefit of those that want to improve even further.

These workshops are free and we encourage as many artists to attend,” said Bakwena.

Also, he encouraged artists to stay in contact with various speakers who had made presentations at such workshops, saying that would go a long way in making a difference for the to make it in the world of art.

Meanwhile, Bakwena indicated that they had already received 170 submissions for this year’s TAYA, something he said, was encouraging. BOPA