The artist community in The Gambia, expressed concern about the lack of even a single arts school in the country, describing the issue as one of the major hindrances for the development and promotion of the spirit of arts in the country.

Mr. Sulayman Manneh, professional artist in sculpture, water and oil paintings, batiks, tie and dye etc., who doubles as the Principal Coordinator at the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS) and Manager of the Karton Museum in Western Region (WR), emphasised the need to have arts school in the country which, according to him, will greatly contribute towards sustainable economic, political and human development. Mr. Manneh said throughout his extensive travels the world over it is only The Gambia which lacks arts school which, according to him, is not good for the up- coming potential artists.

The Gambia’s reknown artist took the opportunity to spoke about reactivation of the spirit of arts in The Gambia. He revealed that they formed an association called the Artist Association of The Gambia of which he is the Secretary-General (SG), noting that this new association replaces the earlier one called Gambia Black African Arts Club. He said the first executive meeting of the association will be on Thursday 14th June, 2007 at the associations building on Jimpex Road, Kanifing.

Mr. Manneh further hinted that, the objectives of the new Gambian Artist Association is meant to foster the spirit of cooperation between artists in the country, provide quality training for the artists and the potential up coming ones, organise symposiums, workshops for school children on the essence of artists in a given community, organise arts exhibitions etc, all geared towards the promotion, preservation and development of arts and culture in The Gambia.

Mr. Manneh held numerous arts exhibitions, both locally and internationally, and also works for many prestigious arts galleries the world wide, especially in the UK.