By Iminza Keboge
Published December 1, 2019
Organising cultural events in Africa is a calling and a humanitarian function much like being a prophet or priest of the Old Testament whose every need was met by the communities they served. Serving as a prophet/priest/watchman today is a tough choice across Africa where such practice is yet to be formalised. Consequently, those who work in this non-formal sector and their work need all the support society (read Governments and Corporate sector) can accord them.
This is my summary of Art in Tanzania, a colourful, hard cover, 180-page book published between 1999 and 2001 as a catalogue of artists and their work for the then annual art exhibition of the same name but that I find to be loaded with lots of thought-provoking information applicable to contemporary arts in general and cultural event organisation and presentation in particular.
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What is particularly intriguing about the Art in Tanzania 2001 book is a section the author, Belgian artist and art dealer Yves Goscinny who organised the annual art shows, titled Sponsoring Art, that should always be borne in mind by every lover of the arts in society.
The annual art exhibition held in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, gave local artists “an appropriate display space, with a professional presentation format”, “physically introduced the artists to the public on every opening day and also backed up each exhibition with an informative and well illustrated book … to take them out of the shadows” besides compiling “an updated database” of the artists between 1998 and 2001.
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“Some people have … questioned the necessity of sponsoring sales-exhibitions,” Goscinny writes, arguing that such people ignore the fact that “all cultural events in the world, sales- or non-sales, do need sponsors.”
Why so?
Goscinny contends that preparing “a cultural event requires considerable human and material resources.”
“If an exhibition is purely cultural it requires 100% sponsorship, while if it is purely commercial, even the 50% commission some private galleries charge cannot fully secure a beneficial balance sheet,” he argues.
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Even then, he says balancing the equation by commercial cultural event organisers like galleries ‘depends on the number and value of sales’. It is for this very reason that “every private galleries resort to sponsors to cover the expenses as much as possible.”
Still skeptical about why cultural events still need your sponsorship in order to present movie and theatre shows, music and dance festivals, and literary conferences and awards ceremonies?
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Then, please, pay some special attention to the following long quote from Goscinny’s Art in Tanzania 2001 book.
“It suffices to think for a minute about the series of conditions you need to meet, to organise an art event: contacting the artists or the representatives, selecting/collecting/gathering and storing artworks, insuring them from the moment they leave their original location until they eventually return to it or are delivered to the buyer, collecting/selecting/formatting the required information, selecting/renting/conditioning the venue, assembling/mounting/setting up exhibition and related materials, conditioning/formatting the artworks, advertising/promoting the event, contacting/informing/mobilising the media, building and updating the mailing list, delivering/mailing the invitations,producing artistically designed posters/invitation cards/banners/flyers, editing book/catalogue, organising a reception/cocktail/buffet at press conference and opening day, paying the artists ….”
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Are you now persuaded that organisers of events–many of them are highly trained professionals with bills to pay just like everyone else not to mention the cost of the events they present–need all the support you can give for them to continue serving you even better?
Goscinny, who worked in Tanzania as Art Consultant, Exhibitions’ Curator/Organiser and writer/editor, organised four editions of Art in Tanzania and five others of East Africa Art Biennale and had 13 art books–Art in Tanzania 1999; Art in Tanzania 2000; Tribute to George Lilanga; Art in Tanzania 2001; East Africa Art Biennale 2003; Tingatinga, the popular paintings from Tanzania;East Africa Art Biennale 2005; What Tanzanians think of Switzerland and the Swiss people; East Africa Art Biennale 2007; The Best of the New Tingatinga, the Popular Paintings from Tanzania; East Africa Art Biennale 2009; and East Africa Art Biennale 2011–published between 1998 and 2011, is listed on the LinkedIn networking site for professionals as being back in Brussels, Belgium.
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