In a bid to encourage more innovation in the arts and craft industry and revive the flagging fortunes of artists and artisans selling their handiworks to tourists in The Gambia, the Association of Small Scale Enterprises in Tourism (ASSET) is organizing an Art and Craft competition from the 18th to the 24th October, 2007.

The objective of this competition is to lift the overall standards of arts and craft products in The Gambia and is geared towards challenging artists and artisans to go on soul-searching ventures that will give originality and quality to the end product of their works.  It will also whet the appetite of the average Gambian artist to explore new ideas which will help them to produce products of better quality for tourists and the general public.

The wisdom in boosting the overall standard of art products intended for the tourist industry could not have come at a more challenging time, when potential buyers of these products have become more critical and demanding.  It is hardly easy to discount the charge that year after year, the lack of originality in carvings, designs and paintings has had little or no inspirational touch of note for those who should be buying them with keen interest.

Two years ago, the first of this kind of competition had sparked off a debate over what is available as exportable Gambia art and what an increasingly choosy flock of tourists want as prized artefacts form the Gambia.  Such observations about Gambian art usually comes from departed tourists to friends and would-be guests whose appetite for “made in he Gambia” products of art are as a result, reduced before their arrival.

In the light of this, what ASSET wants is a complete revival of Gambian art, to excite keener interest in products from the indigenous art industry - an interest which by its reckoning should endure well beyond the sell-by date of the average holiday package to The Gambia.  Art in whatever form is a living tissue, nourish it with originality and it glistens with life, starve it with stagnant ideas and it suffers death.

In line with this concept of revival, ASSET’s Product Development Committee are looking for entries into two categories of this competition namely; the PRACTICAL genre, which could include any item or body of items that may be of practical use to the beneficiary, and the DECORATIVE category, which may include any item or body of items that appeals to the sensual character of man. The first prize for each category is a cash reward of D10, 000 with the right to a FREE STAND at the October 31st 2007, MBOKA tourism fair in Dakar, Senegal.  The second prize for both categories is D5, 000.

We will be holding an opening ceremony for the exhibition on Thursday 18th October, 4.30 pm at “Cultural Encounters” and cordially invite you to attend this occasion to celebrate with us the rich talent in Arts and Crafts The Gambia has to offer.