By Patricia Kapulula
Visual artists in the country have expressed concern over gaps that exist in the sector, as far as digital initiatives are concerned, despite government’s initiatives in supporting the sector.
The artists made the remarks in Lilongwe on Monday on the sidelines of a consultative meeting for UNESCO funded initiatives on developing a national digital roadmap for the creative and cultural industries.
Visual Artist, Evelyn Chisambiro, said most artists rely on people buying their art traditionally which makes them miss out on online opportunities despite having talent.
She, therefore, appealed for advocacy and sensitisation so that artists are aware of online platforms and galleries which they can utilise.
“The world has gone digital and there is more that we can do online than just selling our art traditionally. It is important that artists should be on platform that is available online to market their work,” she said.
She hailed the meeting saying the digital roadmap will provide visibility to artists thereby promoting art not only in Malawi but also beyond.
Lead Illustrator, Vera Mlia Sherrif, said artists face challenges in marketing their work online making them loose out on opportunities which come about due to online marketing.“It is not just having avenues available but sensitisation as some artists are not aware of the existing digital platforms,” she said.
Director of Arts in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Humphrey Mpondaminga, said the transformation to digital technologies has brought both opportunities and challenges hence the need to embrace the technology in order for the sector to tap into the existing opportunities while at the same time addressing the challenges.
He said it is against this background that the consultative meeting is being done to ensure that stakeholders input on what they want as a sector.
“The document to be produced from this meeting will feed into the second edition of the national cultural policy. We have already embarked on a process to finalise the review of the national cultural policy which will be concluded by November 2026,” he said.
UNESCO International Cultural Expert, Salim Dada, has called upon government to harmonise the different arts frameworks and find a way to fix the existing gaps in the sector.
“The challenge is that Malawi has many documentation on creative arts and copyright but what is important is to harmonise the frameworks. There is need for collaborative efforts to achieve that,” Dada said.
In December 2024, the Department of Arts applied for technical support from UNESCO through the call of application that they had established and Malawi was the one of the six successful countries out of the 29.
