Expert engages local artists
ZIMTRADE has engaged the service of a senior expert from Germany to work with local artists and crafters on export and trade of their artworks and products.
The Senior Expert Service (SES) was approached to assist in boosting the qualitative and qualitative output in Zimbabwe’s tangible creative industry, as such, explanation and expansion on the standards that are generally required for international trade are being instructed by the service.
The expert who is in the country is Ruth Pester- Hettche, whom upon meeting with the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, was giventhe green light to engage artists in the art and craft industry.
The first port of call was the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, were Pester- Hettche met with the executive director of the institution, Doreen Sibanda, and discussed the state of art in Zimbabwe, and the hotspots where it is found.
A rapport on exports was established as Pester- Hettche outlined her previous encounters with Third World producers such as Rwanda, Cambodia, Tajikistan, Uganda and Uzbekistan. The graphic and textile designer exclaimed that in each instance, she would train individuals to remain on base to train or evaluate the creative output at each centre which the expert would have visited.
The adage of teaching one to fish as opposed to giving them fish applies strongly in the service’s interests. PesterHettche pointed out that the stagnating factor of most art and craft markets is based on the inability to continuously innovate and reinvent products.
The SES functions globally to bolster cooperation between markets. The organisation’s focus is on public institutions, chambers of commerce, vocational training organisations and small to medium enterprises through skills and knowledge transfer.
In any sector of industry, ZimTrade can reach out to the Special Expert Services in order to facilitate value addition and beneficiation activities for local industries. The client manager for export development for ZimTrade, Ronald Katsande, stated that the art and craft industry shows immense potential with regards its contribution to the nation’s GDP, hence the facilitation of expert outreach to various communities would lay the foundation for future export activities.
Pester-Hettche is to visit numerous centres over the course of her visit, with a workshop being held at the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design where she meticulously outlined the measures required for export and how to achieve lucrative ends.