12 Jun 2018

In the quest to grow, equip and empower performing artistes, Neo Kebiditswe organised a four day training workshop for creative artistes facilitated by international Literary Arts Project curator, arts activism catalyst and a creative humanist, Mbizo Chirasha.

Local artistes of different artistic genres graced the training workshop. In attendance was also Galeboe Moabi, a drama lecturer at Tshwane University of Technology and a multi-disciplinary performance artiste who participated and gave professional counselling to attendees.

In an interview, the organiser Kebiditswe said she felt obligated and saw it fit to organise the workshop to provoke and empower the youth to be in charge of their lives and take full responsibilities of their talents and qualifications in the arts.

Kebiditswe implored the youth to stop being consumers and begin to produce as well as to endure and walk the full journey to fulfill their roles in building the local entertainment and performing arts sphere.

“It is about time we quit the mentality of ‘what if I fail,’ the time has fully come to join hands to effect change. As an individual you are equally capable, don’t be dependent and stop waiting to be rescued rather let’s be a generation of doers,” she said.

She reiterated that young artistes should end the dependency attitude and start collating with the aim to capitalise, create employment and invest in the arts as a whole.

Although she did not have sponsors to help in her workshop, she said she would not stop until she had reached as many creative artistes as possible.

She said even if it meant exhausting her personal savings she would continue because her main aim was to also engage international renowned artistes and professionals as a way to help and expose artistes for possible international scouting opportunities.

For his part, the workshop facilitator Chirasha said through his daily interaction with the artistes, he discovered that youths needed a lot of interventions like the training workshop that would enhance their creative power and energy to move about their lives.

Charisha further said there was need for artists to participate in such an initiative to enable them fill the gap in the market together with the generational gap that still exists between the elderly and the young.

He covered topics such as life ethics, creativity and mind, arts and knowledge economy, arts leadership, international arts exchanges, visibility and creative brand development and performance, certification and readings respectively.

He said his topics were carefully set for relatability about life, the art of living, the creativity and intelligence of life as an artist.

Chirasha said the greatest realisation creative artists should make was that they were embodied in the inclusion of learning and should master self-management.

Moreover, he said artists needed to know they could stand alone and still be productive, lead result oriented lifestyles and abide by positive goals and still be able to find common grounds to unite and raise awareness as collective artists.

He said artists should graduate from talking and dreaming but act, meet people who have the same voice, stop accepting favours, positions and material favours as they cripple them without them realising. He highlighted the need for change and raising awareness to familiarise and introduce people to what they do.

Moabi said she had realised that there was a huge artistic gap in the country where learned people were not getting the much needed support to explore their talents.

She emphasised the need for cultural exchange and to work around the clock to help local artists export their arts. Ms Moabi said she was pleased to have attended the training workshop as she spotted potential and would help resolve the lack of continuity, as artists needed mentorship and motivation. ENDS