By Seleoe Nonyane
The ministry of gender, youth, sports, arts, culture and social development, and Nala Community Market this week made a joint call for creatives to showcase their products at the new Tourism Information and Craft Centre.
This emerged at a roundtable dialogue the two bodies had with creatives at Unescom offices in Maseru on Wednesday last week. The artists include those in the arts and crafts, music as well as the film industry.
The Tourism Information and Craft Centre is a new shop that will soon open to promote and sell Basotho products.
The arts and crafts officer of the department of culture, ‘Mamaime Motanyane, said the ministry has learned that creatives in the country were finding it difficult to market or sell their products.
Motanyane said in a bid to help them, the ministry went out of its way to secure sponsors to help promote the industry both locally and internationally.
“This is how we ended up having the World Bank on board; it funded this initiative by building the centre.
“We called you here as creatives because, as the ministry, we are just facilitators. We would love to hear from you how you would want the place to operate,” he noted.
One of the artists, Tšepo Mofana, was full of praise for the efforts by the ministry, which he said would help grow the sector.
Mofana is a photographer and brains behind the inaugural photography exhibition dubbed ‘The Black Experience’ which was held in December 2022 in Maseru.
“The creative industry is very broad, so we also need other knowledgeable people such as those with financial management skills because there is a need for value addition in the creative space.
“I have problems when it comes to pricing my products, and I would like to believe I am not the only one with this shortcoming.
“So, having a standard price will help us stop charging less than we would, as the cost of production also has to be taken into consideration,” Mofana said.
He called for more workshops to be held for creatives in order to help them acquire more skills.
