OPUWO: At least 20 artists from the Oshikoto, Omusati and Kunene Regions are attending a one-week workshop which aims to help them with the managing, marketing and pricing of their artwork here.

The workshop, which is being facilitated by National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN) staff, is a follow-up on a survey conducted by the NAGN in 2010 on the needs of artists here. It started on Monday.

According to the Acting Director of the NAGN, Luness Mpunwa, the workshop is aimed at empowering artists with the necessary skills which they indicated are needed in the 2010 survey.

The group of participants includes pottery, basketry, beadwork, wood-carving and wiring artists from all three regions.

After the workshop, some of the work produced by the artists which meets certain standards of the NAGN will be added to the products that are sold by the NAGN in Windhoek.

Amongst the participants was Leena David, a well-known pottery artist who is also the chairperson of the Handje Artist Cooperative based in Ondangwa.

Her pottery work has been on the shelves of the NAGN since 1997 as a result of its quality, NAGN Board member Draga Boskovic, who is co-facilitating the workshop, told Nampa.

David said the workshop was a good idea as it was giving them answers to the questions and problems that they as artists face every day.

“As artists we are faced with quality problems and a lack of markets, which hold us back from doing more or expanding our businesses. This workshop is teaching us how to overcome problems of quality, manage our products and how to determine the prices of our artwork,” said David.

Both the 2010 survey and this week’s workshop were funded by the United Nations (UN)’s Millennium Development Goal Achievement Fund.

According to Mpunwa, artists in the Caprivi and Kavango Regions will receive similar training during the course of this year.

The workshop ends on Friday.