By Pinehas Nakaziko
WINDHOEK-The first exhibition of Art Inside 2014, is set to open next week Thursday at the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN)’s Main Gallery.
According to the Public Relations Officer of NAGN, Selma Kaulinge, the exhibition will be at three galleries, the NAGN, Goethe Centre and the Franco Namibia Cultural Centre (FNCC). Minister of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture (MYNSSC), Jerry Ekandjo, opens the exhibition next Thursday. She says the exhibition will run until March 29. Art Inside exhibition is an art project for government art awareness organised by the NAGN in collaboration with the MYNSSC. “The project came about when funds were made available by the Ministry to purchase original Namibian visual arts for installation in all ministries and other government premises. In doing so Art Inside provides a much need incentive and opportunity for Namibian artists,” Kaulinge says.
She adds that after a call for submissions was made to Namibian artists across the country last year, the NAGN received over 500 artworks of which almost 200 pieces have been selected to be part of the Art Inside 2014 Exhibition. “The artworks selected reflect the diversity of the Namibian people, landscape and natural resources, which is portrayed through different mediums including painting, sculpture, photography, prints and craft. The range of art work selected also highlight that Namibian artists possess the capacity to create work of an excellent standard,” says Kaulinge.
When the exhibition closes the artworks works will be installed in different government ministries and premises in the Khomas region. However, this project aims to celebrate visual arts as an important mode of creative communication, and to foster an appreciation for visual arts as an inherent part of government’s working environment. It further aims to inspire lawmakers, officials and visitors to ministries to engage with visual art on a daily basis.