11 Mar 2014

Tsabong-based LG choir was recently funded to the tune of P56 000 by the Department of Arts and Culture through the arts and culture grant to conduct a workshop.

Speaking during the official opening of the workshop in Tsabong recently, LG choir chairperson, Thato Birate, said that the workshop was aimed at improving the quality of products produced by artistes in the southern part of the Kgalagadi District where artistes failed to use their talents to improve their lives and they failed because they lacked knowledge, skills and the know-how to improve the quality of their products.

The workshop sought to empower the artistes with the knowledge to improve their products. They were drilled in financial management, discipline, commercialization of their talents, marketing, registration requirements, survival skills and coping with talents.

There artistes were also to share ideas and come up with solutions to their problems. Another objective was to educate artistes about citizen economic empowerment programmes and the support they could get from organisations such as the Copyright Society of Botswana (COSBOTS).

“Most artists in Kgalagadi south are not aware of different government and private grants and initiatives that can help them grow,” Barite said. The Vice Chairperson of the Botswana Folklore Association, Kopano Mantswe, urged the artistes to register their businesses so that they could gain support from the government.

Mantswe said it was important for the artistes to know management skills such as planning, budgeting, organising, marketing and other requisites for business success such as commitment, hard work passion and patience. He said, “failure to produce and perform well by many artists is a result of lack of passion and commitment towards their work.

Lack of commitment and passion is also the brooding place for all other challenges that artistes are faced with such as lack of initiative, ignorance, lack of information and knowledge and many others.

If artists are passionate and committed to their work they do all in their power to gain knowledge and information on how to improve their products. They go an extra mile in ensuring that they cope with challenges they are faced with.”

Mantswe challenged artistes to be creative and observant; they should have an ear and an eye for changes in the market’s tastes and preferences and quickly act to meet them; and they should always be on the lookout for opportunities. He added: “Artists should be creative, they should think outside the box, for example if the market is saturated with artists who offer the same service or sell the same product, a creative artist will sit down and think, he will think of ways to come up with a different product.

He will then introduce that product to the market. This gesture will cause a shift of the market’s attention from the existing product to his. A creative artist knows that when many people offer the same product to the market, buyers easily get bored by it, so he has to identify a niche in the market.”

Kgatleng Drama Association Chairperson and a member of Kgatleng Performing Arts Commune and Ngwao Loshalaba,  John Marumo, challenged artistes to be bold.
“Many times artists are fearful to express themselves, to find out information on how to succeed,” he said.

“Artists have to be bold, they must not hesitate to take risks and chances in order to improve the quality of their products.” Marumo also said needed to be disciplined, motivated, self-driven and have principles. Ends