Blantyre Arts Festival dangles exposure slots

Malawian artists stand to benefit from a partnership between Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) and Zimbabwean art outfit Apama Arts through international exposure support. Through the partnership, artists from Malawi and Zimbabwe will tour China, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and United Kingdom to network, facilitate collaborations and earn exposure at an international level. BAF will conduct auditions in areas such as music, traditional and contemporary dance and poetry to select artists for the initiative which will be streamlined with this year’s festival scheduled for October 2 to 4.

The auditions will be held at Blantyre Museum and is open to all interested artists from across Malawi. Malawi will contribute 15 artiss with the other 15 coming from Zimbabwe. Speaking in an interview yesterday, BAF director Thomas Chibambo said the initiative will enable participants to create artistic collaborations and enhance their creative skills which will have multiplier effects to their fellow artists in Malawi.

“The young artists will benefit from nurturing their creative skills and build their talents. This exposure will enable artists to co-create and co-produce artistic productions that will help young people to have long-term creative careers and develop cultural and arts industries in Malawi,” he said. Chibambo said the successful artists will undergo an intensive training in preparation for the inter-regional production for the tour.

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He said: “We have been doing these cultural exchange programmes in countries such as South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. The benefits range from financial, exposure and educational knowledge. We are hoping that the Malawian artists will find the project equally beneficial.” The tours are expected to be conducted in September. Apama Arts has participated in the three previous editions of BAF and this year they are expected to be part of the festival again.

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