In the midst of the growing contests that young upcoming artists face in the local art industry, many new entrants continue to ditch entertainment industry, but only a few achieve success.
The talented and promising Maun based artist Prince Moyo of Halethaba ArtSpace is one of those young artist who selflessly continue to work hard to survive in the midst of COVID-19. A University of Botswana Graduate, Moyo said in interview that his artistic work mainly focuses on the concept of bringing things which are reflected useless or of no intrinsic value back into life.
This art work philosophy he revealed that stems from the self-view that may role as a creator, is not only just to make living out of its stressing that COVID-19 has affected the business tougher.“It has turned out evident or true that tourists coming to Maun are a major part of my target audience and their absence caused a decline in sales during the lockdown. But this made me quickly to strategize my approach to dealing with this crisis and so I had to be resilient, “he said.
During this tough time, he said, his hand has not been bound as he was still making artworks and trends in Facebook as a way of building his art brand of Halethaba ArtSpace to localize it.
“Now my target audience was mainly focused on locals and they promised to come for my art services as soon as the lockdown. This gave me a great hope and with the high usage of internet as many people were home and online, my audience was just a click away to my art, “he added.
He noted that he has also managed to venture into his second passion of gardening to grow vegetables and culinary herbs such as spinach, kale to mention a few as part of diversifying.
Moyo says he has clear vision for Botswana art industry particularly on the side of virtual arts.
“I would like to build an art gallery in Maun that will host art exhibitions with the intention of connecting artists with art dealers, curators and investors from all walks of life,” he asserted.
In order for him to reach that goal he is part of a movement called The Art Times which helps with fund raising and art activism in order that is out there and widely visible to the consumer.
His biggest contest is the mindset by some of his fellow countrymen as many view art as way of passing time whilst awaiting to look for a stable regular job thus making it hard to sell to locals.
“But I would like to commend those Batswana communities who are getting a more way of receptive to art as a profession. Another challenge is acquisition of art supplies. I order my paints from Gaborone and this is quite costly as I have to someone to buy and then pay for transportation of those supplies to Maun, “Moyo said narrating on the contests endure.