Gasebalwe Seretse
3 April 2008
In a move to empower local art teachers, Thapong Visual Arts Centre is currently holding a printmaking workshop. The two-week workshop has attracted 12 teachers from Gaborone and surrounding villages.
Participants will take lessons in printmaking and easy bookbinding. According to Elsie Scotch, the office assistant at the centre, Thapong decided to empower the teachers so they in turn can teach their students new approaches that they will have learnt. "We believe that when we teach those teachers, they will be better prepared to teach their pupils print-making skills. So we can say that although it is the teachers who are participating, the focus is on the empowerment of school children," said Scotch. The facilitator at the workshop Andreas Schonfeldt from Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa, said that the workshop ends tomorrow. "The hope is that when the workshop comes to an end, each participant will walk away with a finished book that will have illustrated stories of each and everyone who took part," he said.
As part of the training, Schonfeldt asked his students to write a story and illustrate it, after illustrating they will then bind the pages together to come up with an anthology.
The facilitator further explained that the lessons that his students are undertaking are not conventional printing. He said that easy bookbinding is quite affordable; so both the teachers and their students will benefit a lotfrom the programme. Speaking to Showbiz, one of the participants Kefilwe Mokopane, a teacher at Tlokweng CJSS, said that he was ecstatic to be part of the workshop. He said his story is about the musical art in space and that he is looking forward to seeing his work in print. A Zimbabwean participant has illustrated a scene in which his fellow countrymen and women are queuing for bread while another one shows a traditional dancer performing a healing dance.
The French Embassy in Botswana sponsored the event. Thapong is also currently hosting an exhibition of its members' artworks as part of the Maitisong Festival.
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