02 Dec 2013

The public relations officer of EQO Africa, Kalayakgosi Kalayakgosi, has said that the organisation is concerned about artistes who do not take the profession seriously.

In an interview  at The Cross Cultural Music and Arts exhibition held at Supa Ngwao Museum on November 30,  Kalayakgosi said his organisation was challenged by some artistes who just compete in the Presidential Arts and Music competitions for prize money.

He said some of them after getting the prize money sit back and wait for the next year without continuing to hone their skills. Kalayakgosi said prior to the music and art exhibition, his organisation conducted a half day workshop at the museum to help artistes take art seriously and turn it into a profession.

He said through the workshop qualified artists assisted other artists in different areas and also helped them realise that visual arts and performing arts work together.

Speaking at the exhibition, the director of Mokwalo Arts and Signs, Cyril Ndolo said the music exhibition dubbed ‘Hullabaloo of Senses’ afforded artistes who participated in the morning workshop an opportunity to present their artwork.

He explained that the artworks were produced by artists who were made to listen to a particular piece of music and come up with artwork that reflected what came to their senses. “Tunes of music creates colours and pictures in one’s head and as a result artists were expected to put and reflect those colours and pictures through their artwork,” he said.

Ndolo said they are planning to conduct the event on an annual basis and that artists in Francistown would meet for festivals and other activities on monthly basis at the museum. He said artistes in the city were faced with lack of a common centre and the community does not know them as most of them operate from home.

He said should they have a centre they would be better placed to impact the community with different skills such as guitar playing. Ndolo said the other problem was that artistes lacked financial resources to purchase equipment.

The exhibition was conducted in collaboration with AIESEC and an Intern from the organization in Germany, Ruth Bodewig said she assisted EQO Africa in running workshops and other logistics such as writing of project proposals as well as other projects at the Supa Ngwao Museum.

She said though the project gave people opportunity to realise their personal creative abilities , it was frustrated by lack of sponsorship. A Representative of AIESEC Botswana, Mynah Mbenda said AIESEC, is non-profit making organisation that is run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher learning.

She said AIESEC expanded to Francistown in August through Baisago College and already eight members have been sent to East African countries on exchange programme. She explained that AIESEC members are interested in world issues, leadership and management issues and it achieves this through exchange programmes.

Mbenda said music is powerful medium of communication and AIESEC has a mid-term vision of having a global youth voice through music and art. Meanwhile different artistes such as Ndolo, Mathinthinyane, Black Man, Lot Moshotle, and Nchi Rainbow performed at the exhibition. Ends