Hailed as a ”historic moment” moment by the head of creative arts of the Western Cape education department, Anina Lundie, the Little Artist Exhibition opened at Artscape Theatre Centre for a short run from Thursday, 8 March to Friday, 9 March at the Resource Centre.
Spearheaded by Cape Asian Face Communications it showcased 100 paintings chosen from among 15 000 Chinese children aged between 7 and eleven.It further cemented the tripartite partnership between Artscape Theatre Centre, Cape Asian Face Communications and the Western Cape Education Department within the domain of visual arts as well as entrenching the strong cultural ties between South Africa and China in the realm of the BRICS cooperation agreements.
In his keynote address Cape Asian Face Communications’ Adriaan van Jaarsveld, speaking on behalf of its CEO David Bian underscored the objective of this cultural exchange project as an establishment for a passion for art and visual arts in particular in young children of South Africa in order to bring forth their creativity so that they in turn could exhibit their works in China.
But it was Lundie who could not contain her enthusiasm for the first “historic” path towards finding links and friendship between the WCED creative arts department and China.
Thanking van Jaarsveld for the opportunity for “ giving a voice to children” as a form of alternative expression she noted: “A child might not always want to speak or dance or sing how he feels in life, but may just want to draw a picture so that we can understand what they are going through.”
“It presents an opportunity to finds one’s own voice in a different format, teaches our children to look at the world differently and find healing within our country,” she added
Artscape’s Inclusive Arts director Thoko Ntshinga in her vote of thanks likened the opportunity the exhibition presented to the Youth to the isiXhosa proverb “Bagotywa besebatsha” (if you want a tree to grow straight you have to start making it straight from the beginning stage).
She further emphasised that “Artscape’s doors are open” to the Arts while she expressed hope that the venture would strengthen the ongoing collaboration.
Cape Asian who operates in the industy of arts and culture has at its ethos that of building bridges while Artscape Theatre Centre has an ongoing relationship with the Western Cape Education department through our entrenched education and audience development programme that includes Setwork productions in all three Western Cape official languages, the Schools Arts- and HighSchool Drama Festivals respectively, among others.
