12 December 2008
Windhoek — 'TRUE ARTS' is the name of a new monthly art and culture magazine to appear as part of the projects of Committed Artists of Namibia in 2009.
CAN's organising secretary, Felicity Celento, announced this during an Art/Life interview.
"At present real art and culture is too flimsily covered by the Namibian mainstream print media, something we have been concerned about since we have embarked on our declared public policy of helping to create a true national culture for the country," said Celento.
According to her the much-needed glossy 20-page magazine will cover all sectors and disciplines of the Namibian art and culture scene.
"Our main objective with the magazine is to help fuse government and private efforts to promote and market art and culture in a more specialised manner locally and internationally. There is indeed such a need. It would be appropriate to publish such a magazine in view of the fact that CAN will be celebrating 30 years of existence in 2009," she said.
The magazine will be sold in the public domain and will help provide job opportunities to unemployed artists, writers and graphic designers.
"Naturally, we have the expertise, experience and knowledge of running such a magazine independently with the assistance of the local business fraternity.
"Through research we have come to know there already exists a lot of interest and goodwill for the educational project aimed at aesthetically educating the nation on arts and culture," Celento said.
She said more pages are to be phased in over time.
"There have been many similar efforts in the past, but unfortunately they were not very successful. We intend soliciting and recruiting the help and assistance of art experts in the different fields in the country and from elsewhere as contributors to keep the art debate alive through their writings.
"This will be our approach to a sector largely neglected by the media so far. It will be an important document on arts and culture promotion for generations to come," she optimistically concluded.
Celento also announced a theatre exchange programme between CAN and three European countries.
"Through our contacts with commercial theatres in three Nordic countries, we will embark on the first phase of exporting and importing theatre productions between Namibia, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
"We now have the capacity, technical abilities and expertise to broaden our theatre operations towards Europe," she said.
The exchange programme caters for regular annual performances taken to the European countries and they in turn bring in contemporary plays to Namibia on a regular basis.
"This has been a longstanding project, which we hope to bring to fruition during the second part of 2009. In February the first part of the project will be initiated with the world-hit play, 'King of the Dump', to be performed for the first time in Finland. These performances will form part of a two-week theatre visit to Finland made possible by the Finnish Cultural Fund," she said of this dual programme of performing the AIDS play, 'The Trumpet Player', at a Finnish festival and at schools from 7 to 23 February.
"We intend staging 'King of the Dump' at the commercial theatre at night and by day we will be doing the AIDS play at educational institutions, quite a hectic, but intellectually simulating undertaking," she said.
Celento also re-emphasised CAN's youth theatre pilot project at Khomasdal primary schools starting on February 1.
"We are very optimistic and positive about this project that can have a profound effect on education among primary school learners.
"So are the five school principals involved in the project aimed at holistic education," she concluded.
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