Mohalenyane Phakela
LOCAL arts and heritage hub, Morija Museum and Archives (MMA), will host an exhibition of children’s storybooks from Saturday till November 7 in the museum’s Linotšing Arts Centre.
Linotšing Arts Centre, better known as The Bee-Hive, is located inside the historic yard of Morija Printing Works. It was officially opened by His Majesty King Letsie III in 2011 to cultivate a culture of art-making in Lesotho and for artists to treat art-making as a full-time calling. The exhibition is one of the activities in a series that is intended to help the centre promote young and more established artists, as well as growing the arts education programme.
The exhibition will feature a selection of storybooks written and illustrated by primary school children from a book-making workshop which was held for local children by the museum, facilitated in collaboration with volunteers from the United Nations community sometime in August.
According to MMA Events Manager and Media Officer Lineo Segoete, the whole initiative is intended to foster within the children a reading culture.
“The workshop was open for local primary students,” Segoete said. “The aim is to encourage the young generation to write stories and exploring art.
“MMA before been promoting art such as pottery through Maedar House Gallery and this is the first time it taps into literature.”
During the workshop, each child was tasked to develop his or her own four to five page story book complete with illustrations. The best art work was printed at Morija Printing Works and will be presented on Saturday by the authors themselves at Maedar House Gallery – the oldest standing building in Lesotho which is used for displays and exhibitions at MMA.
She continued: “We believe the exhibition will develop within them the passion to pursue writing as a career and will develop that skill once they realize the reception books get and how beautiful their work looks once published.
“Furthermore, MMA is trying to show children that they can actually make a leaving out the industry as their work of prose will be made available for sale and part of the proceedings will be given to the authors,” said Segoete.
During the exhibition, guests will be treated to a walk-about the gallery with presentations by the young authors led by the director of Maedar House Gallery, Patrick Rorke, as well as wine and cheese while absorbing the ambiance of the museum. There will also be special performances from Morija Primary School students to serenade the event.
