20 September, 2013

The Choma Museum Art Gallery Electronic Newsletter no 5


 20 September 2013
Editor: Bert Witkamp

1          COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION
The Choma Museum e-mail address is: chomamuseum@gmail.com. Mail to that address will be read by Mwimanji N. Chellah, executive director of the CMCC. Peggy Himoonde is in charge of the Art Gallery. For information about the ongoing CM Art Gallery exhibition you may also contact Bert Witkamp at zamfactor@gmail.com. The Choma Museum Art Gallery website is: chomamuseumartgallery.weebly.com. It is small but keeps you updated about what is happening in the gallery. The site gets visited about 10 to 15 times daily – more than the average physical visits of the gallery. This newsletter is also published on the ZamArt Blog and the art gallery website.

2.         CURRENT EXHIBITION: GRAPHIC ART OF ZAMBIA

The Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs and 
CMCC ED admiring a silkscreen print by Lutanda 
depicting a traditional event.
This is the third exhibition of the Choma Museum Art gallery this year. The official opening took place on August 21st 2013 and was performed by Professor Nkandu Luo, Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs. She was accompanied by her two deputy ministers – indeed it has been some time since the CMCC has been visited by three ministers for a single event.    Professor Nkandu Luo in her well informed opening speech expressed appreciation for the manner in which the museum had been setup and was clearly genuinely interested in the institution and its exhibitions. Exhibition organisor Bert Witkamp explained how the exhibition was structured stressing the pioneers of artistic printmaking in Zambia. CMCC Executive Director Mwimanji N. Chellah guided the Ministers, their entourage and invited guests through the CMCC premises, building and exhibitions.
After the Shot. Lino cut
by Patrick Mweemba.
The event was well covered by ZANIS and Andrew Mulenga writing for The Post. Andrew’s article is in the Saturday Post of August 24 2013 and can also be read and seen on his blog named Andrew’s Hole in the Wall by clicking on the link below:
Roy Kausa, art writer and Board member of the Lechwe Trust, also covered the event (on 11.09.13) and had photographs posted on the CNN i-report website.

Bert Witkamp has designed a leaflet providing information about Zambian printmakers and a brief outline of graphic art in Zambia. This information can also be accessed on the Choma Museum Art Gallery website (click on the current exhibition tab), the ZamArt Blog and the Zfactor Art Site (click on IT publications).

This exhibition, in a sense a sequel to the 1996 graphic art of Zambia exhibition by the same institution, may very well be the most comprehensive Zambian graphic art exhibition ever. Almost all major graphic artists are represented. On sale are both recent and older prints. The older prints, made in the seventies and eighties, include increasingly rare prints by Tayali, Cynthia Zukas, Lutanda Mwamba and members of the Lusaka Artists Group. The display runs till end of October.

3         PREVIOUS: WOMEN IN ART – art by or about women
The exhibition opened March 2nd and closed about August 10th 2013. It attracted about 1,000 recorded visitors. Sales amounted to K 10,000.  

4          MEMORY LANE
BaSyabbalo
Today (20.09.13) Mr Enock Syabbalo came to see the museum. He is one of the pioneers of what now is the CMCC. In the early eighties he was working for the Gossner Mission in the Gwembe Valley where he was in charge of the crafts activities of the mission. This activity was adopted by the Netherlands government in 1988 as a development project and developed to what today is the Choma Museum and Crafts Centre Trust Ltd. In 1987, now 25 years ago, it was the Society for the Gwembe Tonga Museum and Crafts Project. BaSyabbalo was its first employee. He is, needless to say, an expert of Gwembe Tonga culture.


5          FUTURE ACTIVITIES
Roy Kausa suggested that this exhibition should move on to the Lusaka National Museum to be combined with a graphic art workshop for secondary school pupils. Sounds like a good idea. The CM Art Gallery as yet has not developed a plan for its next exhibition.

Note: You are welcome to notify art events for posting on the Choma Museum Art Gallery website or ZamArt Blog by using the any of e-mail addresses above.