The Choma Museum Art Gallery Electronic Newsletter no 4
21 September 2013, Edited by Bert Witkamp
This newsletter has also been published on the ZamArt Blog.
21 September 2013, Edited by Bert Witkamp
This newsletter has also been published on the ZamArt Blog.
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1. COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION
The Choma Museum e-mail address is: [email protected]. Mail to that address will be read by Mwimanji N. Chellah, executive director of the CMCC. Peggy Himoonde is in charge of the Art Gallery. For information about the ongoing CM Art Gallery exhibition you may also contact Bert Witkamp at [email protected]. The Choma Museum Art Gallery website is: chomamuseumartgallery.weebly.com. It keeps you updated about what is happening (or not happening) in the gallery. The site gets visited about 10 to 15 times daily – more than the average physical visits of the gallery. This newsletter is also published on the ZamArt Blog and the art gallery website. 2. CURRENT EXHIBITION: GRAPHIC ART OF ZAMBIA This is the third exhibition of the Choma Museum Art gallery. The official opening took place on August 21st 2013 and was performed by Professor Nkandu Luo, Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs. She was accompanied by her two deputy ministers – indeed it has been some time since the CMCC has been visited by three ministers for a single event. Professor Nkandu Luo in her well informed opening speech expressed appreciation for the manner in which the museum had been setup and was clearly genuinely interested in the institution and its exhibitions. Exhibition organisor Bert Witkamp explained how the exhibition was structured stressing the pioneers of artistic printmaking in Zambia. CMCC Executive Director Mwimanji N. Chellah guided the Ministers, their entourage and invited guests through the CMCC premises, building and exhibitions. On display are drawings in pencil or pen, and prints (lino cuts, wood cuts, etching, monotypes, and perhaps one or two lithographs). This exhibition coincides with the UN World Tourism Organisation conference which in August partially took take place in Livingstone. The exhibition especially focusses on the pioneers of printmaking in Zambia: Cynthia Zukas, Henry Tayali and the members of the Lusaka Artists Group (Bert Witkamp, Fakson Kulya, Patrick Mweemba and David Chibwe); and those who became major print makers after them: Lutanda Mwamba, Agnes Yombwe, Patrick Mumba and others. The event was well covered by ZANIS and Andrew Mulenga writing for The Post. Andrew’s article is in the Saturday Post of August 24 2013 and can also be read and seen on his blog named Andrew’s Hole in the Wall by clicking on the link below: http://andrewmulenga.blogspot.com/2013_08_01_archive.html Roy Kausa also covered the event (on 11.09.13 I think) and had photographs posted on the CNN i-report website. Bert Witkamp has designed a leaflet providing information about Zambian printmakers and a brief outline of graphic art in Zambia. This information can also be accessed on the Choma Museum Art Gallery website (click on the current exhibition tab), the ZamArt Blog and the Zfactor Art Site (click on IT publications tab). Buyers receive freely the leaflet Keeping Art – it is about the care for prints, drawings and water colours. This exhibition may very well have been the most comprehensive Zambian graphic art exhibition ever. Almost all major graphic artists are represented. On sale are both recent and older prints. The older prints, made in the seventies and eighties, include increasingly rare prints by Tayali, Cynthia Zukas and members of the Lusaka Artists Group. The exhibition shall run till end of October 2013. 3. PREVIOUS EXHIBITION: WOMEN IN ART – art by or about women The exhibition opened March 2nd and closed about August 10th 2013. It attracted about 1,000 recorded visitors. Sales amounted to K 10,000. 4. MEMORY LANE Today (20.09.13) Mr Enock Syabbalo came to see the museum. He is one of the pioneers of what now is the CMCC. In the early eighties he was working for the Gossner Mission in the Gwembe Valley where he was in charge of the crafts activities of the mission. This activity was adopted by the Netherlands government in 1988 as a development project and developed in what today is the Choma Museum and Crafts Centre Trust Ltd. In 1987, now 25 years ago, it was the Society for the Gwembe Tonga Museum and Crafts Project. BaSyabbalo was its first employee. He is, needless to say, an expert of Gwembe Tonga culture. 5. FUTURE ACTIVITIES Roy Kausa suggested that the graphic art exhibition should move on to the Lusaka National Museum to be combined with a graphic art workshop for secondary school pupils. Sounds like a good idea. The CM Art Gallery as yet has not developed a plan for its next exhibition. Note: You are welcome to notify art events for posting on the Choma Museum Art Gallery website or ZamArt Blog by using the any of e-mail addresses above. |