Frederick Philander
5 December 2008
Windhoek — Many visual art students annually graduate and emerge from Namibian institutions, but most of them thereafter become part of the mostly unemployed established ones in the country.
With these words, the Deputy Director of Arts in the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, Ervast Mtota, hit the nail right on its head when on Monday evening he officially opened the third annual collective exhibition of the arts organisation, VA-N at Studio 77.
A number of works of members are currently on display and for sale to art lovers and the general public until December16.
"Generally, artists are perceived to be potential money makers through their creative products or they can easily become rich. However, many local artists remain poor, especially if they decide to live exclusively on their art," said Mtota, who referred to the findings of a recent study survey his department has conducted.
"It remains a mystery why the majority of Namibian artists struggle to make a living from their art works after graduation and why those who do engage in enterprises often remain in a perpetual start-up phase," the former Rector of the College of the Arts said with concern.
According to Mtota, one of the reasons for this abnormality is the fact that most young artists are unable to manage the business of arts.
"Many of them struggle in setting up a simple exhibition and everything that goes with it, such as choosing a theme, the selection of art works, securing sponsorship, selecting a venue accessible to everyone, timing of the event and properly marketing and promoting such and exhibition," he said.
He urged VA-N to take up the challenge to guide these young artists in their quest to improve the artists' plight.
"One of the aims of VA-N is to provide support and development to visual artists in Namibia with emphasis on supporting and developing emerging artists. Unfortunately, artists believe the only way to make a living is through formal employment," he said, passing the buck on to VA-N to open employment doors for such artists.
It is general knowledge among artists that the focus over the past 18 years has been on quantity and not quality education and training at government art institutions to qualify for funding.
"I would like to encourage artists to realise that art is a profession on its own. In fact, art has been since time immemorial been for gain in one way or another. Maybe we do not want to be seen commercialising Namibian arts. A paradigm shift is needed if local artists are to catch up with other arts disciplines such as music," Mtota warned.
To him, art form expressions such as architecture, illustrations, cartoon and animation, signwriting, graphic design, textile design, jewellery design and industrial design all offer creative employment opportunities to Namibian artists.
VA-N is the fastest growing art body in the country, with more than 60 paid-up members.
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