Regional hubs in pipeline, artists to benefit - ENCAC

MBABANE – A portion of the budget allocated for Arts and Culture will be used in the establishment of regional hubs.

This was revealed by Eswatini Na tional Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) CEO 6tanley Dlamini during an interview with this publication on Tues day. During the budget speech which was presented by 0inister of )inance Neal 5iMkenberg last week )ri day, the arts sec tor was allocated E

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/ocally there is still lack of venues where artists can mingle and share ideas in order to de velop each other¶s craft. Artists have to pay mon ey when booking venues to use due to the lack of facilities.

The lack of the facilities makes it difficult for the artists to host workshops the Theatre Club in 0babane is currently the only venue available for use, by artists willing to share ideas. Now that a positive allocation has been made for the Arts council, artists might stand to benefit, as ENCAC CEO promised to bring regional hubs.

Dlamini said this allocation would help ac celerate their plans to introduce the regional hubs, which are aimed giving local artists more workspace. “We asked for the budget strictly for our proMects.

Events

,f you look at our cultural events over the years, one might note that the events have grown. The regional hubs will benefit our artists in the sense that they will be able to do rehearsals, host events and also get services associated with the Arts and Culture Office. We are hoping this will culminate to regional festivals or other small festivals,´ Dlamini said.

“Anyone who wants organise talent search events will get to use our regional hubs. Also, those coordinating cultural activities will get access to the hubs. ,n a nutshell, with our pro gramme we are trying to also reaches some of the regions which are not found in the urban area.

You will realise that many of artists locally are young, so we are planning to reach out to them this year. We also want to ensure that the things they lack, such as eTuipment as well as rehearsal space are provided for them at regional level,´ said Dlamini.

Dlamini further addressed the lack of eTuipment for artists, saying that it had been a maMor chal lenge for artists and this is what they aim to end with the funds allocated for them.

“The biggest challenge of our artists is that they lack eTuipment and the second challenge is that they pay too much money in booking venues.

“These are the main issues we will be tackling this year.

“5egions are very slow in hosting festivals, whereas, if you can remember very well, fes tivals in the country are a success story. 6o we want these festivals to come back as we want to see if these small festivals will be successful in becoming big regional festivals.

“That is why we want to start with a Mamming centre, as we believe that with these centres we will be able to help grow the regional festivals. , am basically saying that our artists will be kept busy this year, they will be performing in this small regional festivals, they will have access to eTuipment, they won¶t have a problem with accessing venues.

We can agree that the potential shown by our local artists is very positive so we hope this will really work out,´ Dlamini said.