Bakwena, who is in his 20th year as the coordinator of the centre, has become the public face of the visual arts in the country. An artist and curator by profession, Bakwena commands respect within and outside the industry and his word when he speaks about the arts could be taken as the gospel truth. His passion shows whenever he talks art and he is steadfast that the creative industry can be at the centre of job creation in the country, but that would require a total mindset change to happen.
To Bakwena, art is a creative skill and a rare talent that God has given a few to change the world; as such it should be treated as a scarce skill. In his words, artists possess special skills that are not common and cannot be taken away from them.
He said creativity is God-given and spiritual.
“Engineering is a scarce skill and some other areas of speciality have been classified as such. Why can’t we treat creativity as a scarce skill because, at the end of the day, it is not everyone who is creative? It is unique, and it is something that comes from God, which has a mystery behind it. It is not very common and easy for people who are not artists to understand art hence I say it is a special area that could be used to create employment,” Bakwena said.
Whilst he is adamant that there has been growth in the appreciation for the arts, he said more needs to be done to recognise the impact that the arts could have and the role of the artists.
In the past, according to Bakwena, local artists relied on tourists to buy their creations. However, there has been a positive development in that Batswana have begun to purchase art. That growth in the appreciation for art, he said, could be attributed mainly to the change of mindset in government. Since the government started buying and exhibiting works of local artists, Bakwena said more people have now started to develop a career out of art. In his view, that could get even better if artists were classified as scarce skills.
Furthermore, he says art has been led by people who are not artists and do not understand art. Therefore, he called for the need to allow artists to run the affairs in order for it to make greater strides in the country. For example, he said, when the government or parastatals wants to collect art, a procurement officer is tasked to do that meanwhile that officer has no understanding of art. He says in that instance, an organisation should engage a curator whose experience would be helpful in getting the right artwork that is needed. Bakwena is of the view that the principle of self–regulation should be central in the operations of institutions such as the Botswana National Arts Council.
“That’s why you would find some artworks used as door stoppers in some offices. This is because they collected artworks which are of no value to them. There is no documentation of what they collected. That’s why I’m saying, give the artists the chance to lead and support them,” he said. He says the creative industry has experienced people such as Phillip Segola, Keeme Mosinyi, John Selolwane, David Slater, Taolo Moshaga and Alfred Mosimanegape, among others. Bakwena is of the view that these people have amassed invaluable experience over the years which could be useful for the country if they are allowed to run the affairs of the arts industry.
“Setlhako se fisa morwadi, hence I’m saying it is us who know exactly what we want and how it should be done.
Who should lobby for the arts, who should advocate for them? It is the artists themselves who can do that and should be allowed to sit at the top tables making policies and laws that could benefit them. We need capacity building for the artists as well as galleries,” he adds. Meanwhile, Thapong Visual Arts Centre has contributed immensely to the growth of the arts. Although he bemoaned lack of funding which he says has contributed to the cutting of some programmes, he said they have found ways to support and expose their members to the market. “We host exhibitions and workshops every now and then to empower our members. The Thapong Artist of The Year (TAYA) is another initiative that we use to empower artists. One of the TAYA benefits is that the winner is sent on an artist-exchange programme to benchmark as well as expand their knowledge of the arts in any SADC country of their choice,” he explained.
