2024 will be a year of new dynamism for the national culture scene: Absa Bank Mozambique will bring new momentum to the arts in Mozambique, with Ready for Art, a project promoting arts and culture that the Bank will expand to the centre and north of the country, specifically with the creation of art exhibition windows in the cities of Beira and Nampula.
Through the “Galeria Absa” competition, an innovative and wide-ranging programme, Absa gave rise to new talents and new expressions of contemporary art. The competition led to Ready for Art, designed to celebrate and enrich artistic expression in all its forms, as well as to provide a space for artists and new talents to present their creations.
Ready for Art aims to boost the growth and development of our young artists through a set of training courses that contribute to personal, financial and business development in this niche, with an integrated training plan that respects the precepts of the 2030 agenda. In the words of Ema Soares, one of those responsible for implementing the project, this initiative will be crucial for the growth of the arts and culture in Mozambique:
“This opportunity will make all the difference not only to the lives of the artists who take part in the project, but also to all the others who will look to them as an example. Having talent is not enough if other business, financial and interpersonal skills are not developed, including communication, image and other skills that allow artists to improve the way they are, present themselves and make art. More than that, we now have an agenda that leads and guides us towards action more focused on environmental issues, youth empowerment, and social and gender inclusion, and this project was also designed to respond to these challenges. The Absa windows are a place for raising awareness and consciousness, so we believe our artists will influence and change generations.”
The programme will begin with 32 candidates, who will go through 5 days of training, after which 14 artists will be selected to move on to the next phase.
For two months, the selected artists will receive mentoring in curation and in preparing the exhibitions, to be held in the Absa Galleries at the aforementioned branches.
Above all, the programme seeks to develop young people in three main areas, which combine talent, relationships, business vision, intention and outlook on life: entrepreneurial awareness (uniting artistic authenticity and entrepreneurial identity), behavioural skills (developing the behavioural skills needed to deal with the uncertainties of the unstable environment in which artistic enterprises operate), business skills (focusing on developing the business vision needed to improve performance and to consolidate long-term professional success), and the artist's image (creating a personal brand and artistic narrative);
The curation of the project will be in the hands of Matheus Sithole, a national artistic reference of whom we are very proud.
