In its sustained efforts to stimulate creativity and innovation in the country’s arts scenes as well as to rejuvenate fortunes of artists and artisans dealing with tourists, the Association of Small Scale Enterprises (ASSET) would be staging a week-long arts and craft competition.

The objectives of the competition are to,inter alia, spur artists and artisans to embark upon soul-searching for fresh ideas that will give originality to the finished product of their works and to up-lift the overall standard of arts and craft products.

The competition is also expected to whet the appetite of the average Gambian artist and artisan to come up with newer and innovative ideas that will aid them in producing products of high quality for consuming tourists and the greater public.

What assets simply want is a whole-sale revitalization of Gambia’s art world, ignite and excite keen 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.

In accord with its concept of revival, the ASSET’s Product Development Committee is inviting entries for the competition in two categories of practical genre and decorative.

There is a first prize of D10, 000 for each of the categories and the unique opportunity to have a free stand in the up-coming October 31 Mboka Tourism Fair in Dakar. The winner for the second positions in both categories will smile away home with D5, 000 cash prize.