Five artists on Friday received K1,250,000 each totaling K6, 250,000 seed funding from Sula Creative Hub, spearheaded by the School of Arts, Communication and Design at the University of Malawi in partnership with The Music in Africa Foundation (Miaf) and Goethe-Institut South Africa.
Held at University of Malawi campus in Zomba, the seed funding is meant to finance the five creatives’ artistic businesses.
It comes barely five months after five other artists were given K1, 250,000 each, amounting to K6,250,000, to boost their artistic businesses.
The seed funding event originates from the Sula Business Incubation Programme for Malawian Artists, which trained 20 artistic businesses in entrepreneurial skills necessary for artistic businesses.
Out of the 20 participants that took part in the business incubation programme, five were selected after pitching the best business ideas that needed to be supported with funding.
The five are visual artist Tapiwa Mlinga (arts and craft), Brian Kububa (audio production), MacPhallen Kwaitana (film production), Fiyaupi Gwazanga (audio production) and Pledge Sambo (ceramic production).
The Sula Incubation Programme for Malawian Artists is part of the ‘Strengthening the Cultural and Creative Industries in Malawi Project’.
Project Lead for Sula Project, Catherine Makhumula Mtimuni, Monday described Sula as one of the few hubs providing funding to creatives in the country.
“We provided funding to five creatives who took part in our first incubation training and, now, we have provided funding to an extra five. So far, we have provided a total of K12,500,000 to 10 creatives,” she said.
Makhumula Mtimuni said they have incubated 40 artistic businesses as well as given professional development training to almost 200 creatives in various fields.
‘Sula is here to support Malawian creatives,” she said.
Makhumula Mtimuni said they were looking for more funding and that their current preoccupation was developing their own space in Zomba, which will have sound, video and ceramic studios as well as an arts and crafts shop.
Mlinga, who has been vibrant with face painting as well as participating in different exhibitions, hailed Sula Creative Hub for the seed funding.
“I am thankful for this opportunity; this is a push I needed for my artistic business,” she said.
This project is part of the Sound Connects Fund, implemented by Miaf in partnership with Goethe- Institut and made possible with funding from the ACP-EU Culture Programme, with co-funding by Goethe-Institut and Siemens Stiftung.
