The Sunday News
Ntombiyolwandle Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
THE economic challenges being faced by the country has not spared the visual arts sector.
This was said by the National Art Gallery in Bulawayo director, Voti Thebe, adding that this has led to a decline in the number of tourists that represented the largest number of visual art customers.
“The demise of the economy has greatly affected visual arts. People are no longer buying art works. The market at the moment is bad. People do not have money to buy pieces of art work and they would rather buy food to eat than art work.
“The number of our visitors, mostly tourists has dwindled. Foreigners are no longer coming like they used to and they are the people who contributed much in terms of buying art works as compared to locals,” he said.
Thebe said despite the hard times that have befallen artists, they have always tried to make do with what is available to them.
“Previously when we had sponsorship we would select an artist with potential and collect their work and have it exhibited and now it is up to the artists to make an application to exhibit due to limited funding,” said Thebe.
However, the Gallery director, a seasoned painter in his own right, said the Gallery was playing its role in supporting all visual artists.
“The Gallery is playing its part in supporting visual artists though it has limited funding and sponsorship. The Gallery supports artists and has their work exposed on an international level. We have solo and collaborative exhibitions like VAAB (Visual Artists Association of Bulawayo). There are efforts being made by the Gallery to cater for all artists,” he said.
He added that they have undertaken various initiatives of marketing themselves locally and abroad.
“The Gallery is making efforts in advertising its works to the local audience. So far we have started going to schools and engaging children in art and educating them on visual arts. We also invite people to our exhibitions trying to popularise the art work to the local audience.
“Last year we had BACOSSI exhibitions with the audience given the privilege to charge themselves on any art piece they wanted. In these exhibitions, the local audience responded very well as many art works were sold to even popular restaurants for their display,” he said.
