Ministry calls for amateur art festivals
Ministry of Tourism and Culture has called on organisers of arts festivals to specifically consider amateur and budding artists, saying this creates new artists for the industry.
Spokesperson for the Ministry, Chrissie Chiumia, said this in a questionnaire response when commenting on how festivals are benefiting the country.
Chiumia said most of the festivals target established artists,hence sidelining budding ones.
“The Ministry would like to see diversity in the nature of festivals. We want to see variety in terms of target audience. Festivals should serve to meet specific needs and should take place around a calendar instead of them being adhoc. We need some festivals specifically to serve as a platform to expose amateur artistic works. In that way, we can develop the creative industry,” she said. The spokesperson also praised organisers saying mushrooming of festivals is an indication that the creative industry is developing. She also said the quality at the festivals shows that creativity is improving and artists can impress both local and international visitors.
She, however, attacked organisers that run the festivals for personal benefits.
“Festivals should be sustainable, they should not be a one-off activity. We want organisers who are bona fide entities and individuals whose motivation is to develop and promote the creative industry and consequently the tourism industry for national development. Organisers should not be briefcase companies who want to rip participants and patrons off,” said Chiumia.
She said arts festivals are a serious business that can generate forex citing as an example Zimbabwe’s Harare International Festival for the Arts (HIFA) which enjoys good patronage from across the continent.
