Page initiated: 17 march 2011
About a month ago I launched the idea of setting up a website to be the Virtual Museum of Modern Zambian Art.
To promote and test the idea I started a Blog, some sort of mini-website. A Blog is particularly suited to record development in time focused on a theme or subject (the log part of it) and is particularly suited to solicit and receive content or comment from Blog visitors.
ZamArt Blog, as it is, gives you a bit of the taste of what a www.zamart.com website is going to look like; by having some of the pages the zamart site should have, a tiny bit of content, and the Internet communication facility (the Blog itself).
Responses have been sufficiently encouraging to carry on with this project. Non-response also has been significant and indicates underutilisation of Internet technology and communication, notably by artists.
Summary of Concept:
The projected zamart website is to have three main functions:
1. To be a virtual museum of modern Zambian art
2. To be an IT communication platform open to all interested in Zambian art
3. To be a market link in the buying and selling of art (and possibly quality crafts)
To get there presently the following is in motion:
a. ZamArt Blog development
b. Work on artists’ profiles (to appear as posts in the blog and facilitating online arrangement of Art for Sale)
c. Design of the ZamArt website
Website development:
During the past days (yes indeed, a protracted effort it was!), I have downloaded and installed, with a little help from my friends, website building software especially developed for community servicing purposes. And indeed, o wonder, today on this very screen before my eyes appeared the welcome message of the home page of the zamart site to be. You may ask yourself why I should torture myself with the pertinently obscure and intransigent matter (or is it non-matter?) that website building software is – should I not direct my energy and intelligence (or what is left of it....) towards an activity in which I can claim at least some proficiency and competence? My answer, based on long local experience, is that in our environment you must know what you are doing, even if you do not do it yourself. That is not to deny the need for a genuine IT professional. But to communicate with such a person requires some understanding of what (s)he is doing or is capable of. In the meantime, let us move on!
Once more I invite you to comment, react or contribute as you like to:
MAKE ART WORK
BUILD A MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS OR BORDERS
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