Blantyre-based youthful visual artist Chimwemwe Luwanda has stepped up his sip and paint mission by reaching out to various circles.
The most recent one is the paint party at the Institute of Malawi Marketers (IMM) in Mangochi.
Sip and paint—also known as wine and paint, drunk painting or brush and sip—is a social activity where participants paint a canvas while enjoying a drink and snacks.
Luwanda, who has in recent years held sip and paint sessions with the aim of propelling visual art, said yesterday that he wanted to raise the profile of visual arts.
“We have, in the past, relied heavily on exhibitions but, now, we want to change the narrative. We want people to be involved, hence sparking conversations through sip and paint sessions,” he said.
Luwanda said he decided to reach out to marketers with the sip and paint activity to offer them a lighter moment and take them away from marketing deliberations.
“Again, through sip and paint sessions, I was trying to make marketers understand that they can also connect with visual art in their programmes. Art is powerful and players in the marketing industry and other fields need to treasure and utilise it in their operations,” he said.
Since he came to the limelight, Luwanda has made steps with sip and paint, which has also been exploited by visual artists such as Evelyn Chisambiro of Kaliso Art Gallery in Lilongwe.
In another development, Luwanda will on Saturday hold an Art Dream Night Market set to showcase paintings from previous sip and paint events at Chichiri Museum in Blantyre.
“During the event, we will also have sip and paint sessions, live performances and an exhibition. We will keep doing this and the idea is for visual art to be visible,” he said.
Luwanda said this is a watershed moment in Blantyre’s art calendar and that it would offer people a chance to network.
