The Sunday News
INTWASA Arts Festival koBulawayo has released a programme for planned workshops to be held during the festival. The workshops are meant to enlighten and equip local artistes with business skills among other issues concerning the development of the industry. The workshops are scheduled to be held in and around Bulawayo during this year’s edition of the arts festival in September.
“We don’t want artistes to rely on donations all the time and therefore we have included a programme whereby they are taught how they can sustain themselves through art. We will be looking at this in terms of branding and other issues like marketing. We have called upon people in business to come and look at that issue because at the end of it all we don’t want people to continue viewing art as a hobby but as a business”, said the festival director, Raisedon Baya.
“We have come up with four programmes that are going to take place during the festival. There is the young writer’s workshop which will focus on high school pupils. We are bringing young writers to the festival and we are going to introduce them to renowned publishers to lead discussions about what they want to write about and how they can go about it.
“We have realised that there is a lot of talent at schools but most of the time these pupils do not know who to approach with their works. So far we have approached up to 50 secondary schools in the Matabeleland region.”
Baya said this time around during the festival; they would not only focus on issues affecting musicians but also book writers.
“The issue of book piracy has not been explored much and therefore we want to come up with strategies on how we can end it especially in schools where books are photocopied”, said Baya.
He said there would be a workshop also during the festival, which would concentrate on cultural diversity.
“At every festival people celebrate diversity, which in my understanding is the celebration of different cultures we have in the country, but then we do not see that diversity during the festival. “We have therefore called upon representatives from different sectors and different cultures to discuss the discourse around cultural diversity on a national level because people are silent on that.”
This year’s edition will be held from 23–27 September and will run under the theme “Unforgettable”.
The festival seeks to continue its efforts to promote young and emerging artistes and talent from the different communities of Bulawayo.
