Thapong provides a venue for the visual arts in Botswana through maintaining studios, Residencies and workshops. The workshops promote the sharing of art skills and stimulation of professional artists, school leavers, and art teachers. They can either be of two-week duration or shorter and weekend workshops have also being run. Instructors are professionals from in and outside Botswana, if availab
le, from other International workshops and the workshop Network generally. As professional visiting artists, they provide stimulation and a fresh perspective. The Thapong Visual Art Centre was established in 1998 as it became clear that more workshops were needed with a full-time venue. Very basic Artists’ Studios have been built , the main house renovated and in 2005, the tents that housed the workshops have been replaced with an airy shed. Residencies were being instituted in 2002 whereby a professional artist from another country works in Botswana for a couple of months, alongside local artists. Small outreach workshops are held and the artist exhibits at the end of the period with the Centre artists. Art is for Everyone; it is about stimulating your creativity and being a whole person in a whole society. It is a way to learn to be yourself through expressing yourself and your ideas about life, your society, your being.
