The group's name is taken from the Setswana word Baagisanyi meaning neighbours in English.
The group is engaged by mall management to assist in turning the area into a Creative Hub with the plan to commercialise the creative industry and generate income in order to have a role in boosting the country’s economy.
According to the art director at Baagisan, Legodile Segopolo they will be working with the mall management as youth to help fellow youth sell and improve their creative works. Baagisan will today launch an art studio at the mall. “We will on Friday (today) launching an art studio, which will be open for people from a young age to adult a platform where they can explore their creativity.
We intend to give everyone a chance to explore their talents. It is good to nature children’s talent from a young age.” said Segopolo. “Adults can also register with us and use the gallery to unwind from busy and stressful weekday.
We intend to have art pieces from the walls to the roof and sell as much as we can to generate income for our artists. We are confident that this art gallery space can generate income. It has three working stations,” he said earlier.
For his part, Molapo Crossing Mall boss Luke Vandecasteele explained that the Molapo Cultural and Creative Hub would be an open community where people from diverse sectors and backgrounds would thrive together as a community.
He added that it would provide collaborative opportunities in spaces such as co-working, maker space, fabrication labs, studios, workshops, galleries, theatres, sports arenas and multi purpose event spaces.
He added that the purpose of the hub was to create jobs and diversify and grow the local economy. Vandecasteele explained that it would empower creative thinkers to solve problems in new and innovative ways, build a creative community destination enhanced by its community diversity, develop business skills and market opportunities for creative practitioners and innovators, embed creative problem solving and value in all nub activities in order to change minds and unlock the potential of cultural and creative industries as a factor for competitiveness for Botswana’s economy.
He explained that after launching the Art Gallery, he would be focusing on working on establishing the craft gallery. He added that he chose to work with Baagisan because he was amazed at their talent and vision in growing the art industry. He added that he believed that the gallery together with other creative initiatives would get the public attention and even attract tourists to come and uncover local talent.
