Northern awards to handsomely reward artists

Koketso Kgoboge | Wednesday August 2, 2017 16:24

The awards have grown from a 12 awards event in the first edition in 2015 to recognising over 30 categories this year.

Last year the awards had more than doubled to 28 categories and they have since added seven more categories for this installment.

Among others, the new categories are inclusive of the Best Northern Arts Ambassador, Best Rock Award, Best Comedy Production and Best Arts Supporter.

Moreover, on top of recognising artists who win their respective categories, the winners will this year also smile all the way to the bank.

The NAA chairperson Ontiretse Nthinthie said the primary mission of the awards is to encourage artists in the north and end the lack of monetary rewards.

“We found ourselves at loggerheads with our artists in the past because they were not rewarded with money but it was unfortunate because that was inevitable as at the time we were experiencing teething problems. We could not garner enough sponsorship,” he said.

“We took lessons from the past and this year we have gone an extra mile to include the money alongside the award to ensure the artists are motivated and happy as per our mandate.”

For general awards, Nthithie said they have their budgets around P1,000 and for other ‘big awards’ of the event such as the overall award and the Northern arts ambassador they have their budgets at P5,000.

Nthinthie revealed they have established partnerships with their counterparts in South Africa’s SASMA and Zimbabwe’s Inkaza Festival awards and Bulawayo Art Awards. “We will also be benchmarking at these awards.”

He said before the awards they will be hosting a fundraising dinner where the nominees and their voting lines will be unveiled.

“We have also realised that our artists had setbacks in marketing their voting lines as thus we will hold jam sessions in all different locations across the northern region to help our artists sell themselves to the public.”

He also said they are still looking for more sponsorship partners to come on board to ensure the awards reach greater heights.

The current sponsors are Duma fm, VIB Mobile, and Member of Parliament for Francistown West, Ignatius Moswaane and his colleague from across town at the Francistown east constituency, Buti Billy.