A fine artist’s life goes by contraries in Malawi.
To begin with, the artist labours for years trying to learn how to tie one’s shoes in art. Then, full of the high hopes and ambitious dreams of an adventurer, the artist sets out to begin the work of impressing the nation with their expressive artworks.
Lucky ones hit the jackpot and make a decent living out of their art. The unfortunate, but hardworking, ones stumble on their voyage somehow, and continue to float on the wreck of poverty.
It is a situation that does not cease to baffle artist George Mkumbula, the Visual Arts Association of Malawi chairperson for the Central Region.
Mkumbula, who is famous for his work Wonderful Dawn, observes that the country’s unexploited natural resources offer an artist fertile ground for generating riches.
He has examples.
“As an artist, I have created a lot of works from these ‘raw materials’ and our rich history. Other artists depict the Akafula in their works and eke out a living,” says Mkumbula.
To others, however, having an unexploited environment and a horde of natural resources is not all there is to making the best out of fine art.
For example, French Honorary Consul to Malawi, Luc Deschamps, observes that Malawi offers limited academic opportunities to people who want to carve a life in the fine arts industry.
“Apart from Chancellor College [a constituent College of the University of Malawi], there are not many academic institutions that offer programmes in expressive arts,” says Deschamps.
Deschamps says this is the reason Jacaranda Cultural Centre has been inviting well-known figures in expressive arts to Malawi in a bid to ensure that those who do not have the opportunity to go to institutions such as Chancellor College find a way of letting the artist in them out.
“By the way, as one way of promoting arts among children in Malawi, we will work with 15 students from Otis College in the US They will spend 10 days at Jacaranda and, together with our children, they will create a design project.
“In addition, students from the arts department at Chancellor College will also come to train our kids. There are a lot of opportunities in the arts, and some artists can, for example, become administrators. People need the tools to grow their art,” says Deschamps.
According to Visual Arts Association of Malawi general secretary, Gilbert Mpakule, Malawi has a lot of people with in-born talent, but their efforts are frustrated by a citizenry detached from the arts.
Mpakule observes that most visual artists depend on tourists, who are fast becoming a perishable commodity as their numbers continue to dwindle.
The situation is far from encouraging.
Leave a Reply