Kayesa Creative Centre in Mchinji has entered into partnership with legendary jazz musician Erik Paliani and The Festival Institute.
The development has led to the launch of the Paliani Jazz Academy and Festival Institute Centre for Creative Excellence in Mchinji.
Kayesa Creative Centre announced yesterday that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Paliani Jazz Academy and The Festival Institute in a ground-breaking agreement that will see the centre opening a 360 degree training and professional development centre for Malawi’s creative community.
Through the combined efforts of the partners, the agreement serves to further the development of the creative industry in Malawi by providing a professional training platform whose activities are essential to the growth of the industry.
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The centre and its partners aim to foster a new generation of innovative, excellent and inspired thought-leaders and change-makers by providing necessary technical advancement through artistic literacy and multi-layered creative trainings.
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The partnership will also enhance cultural exchange, arts mobility and regional collaboration across Malawi and Africa as a whole.
The agreement brings together technical aspects of music pedagogy, including music fundamentals such as standards, tones and tempos, as well as music composition, arrangement and improvisation to be provided by Paliani Jazz Academy with arts, culture, production and project management core training programmes provided by the Festival Institute.
Kayesa Creative Centre Director Lomuthi Mgomezulu Andersen said the partnership was all about opening infinite possibilities for the creative industry in the country.
“We want everybody to see what we see here and to learn what we know. The centre is co-directed by Kimba Mutanda Andersen, best known as one of Malawi’s pioneers of hip hop music as original member of rap-group The Real Elements,” she said.
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Mgomezulu Andersen further said the partnership was formed because there was an urgent need to start developing the tools necessary for making the arts sector an industry.
Paliani, who has starred with several big name artists including Hugh Masekela, said the partnership was inevitable and essential for the growth of the sector.
“It is a creative revolution. We are ready to fight for an industry with a future,” he said.
Festival Institute Director Tammy Mbendera was equally happy.
“The change in attitudes is what has fostered such collaborative efforts and this is what the industry needs to not just survive, but to thrive and become globally competitive.
“We are excited to be working with our new partners who both bring with them a wealth of creative capital both in knowledge and resources,” Mbendera said.
She added that being able to have a permanent space to conduct trainings was a game-changer for them and even more so for their beneficiaries.
Kayesa Creative Centre and its partners will begin their combined activities from September 1 2023.
