Pashuka – A Reading Space for the Art Curious

Imagine flicking through ‘Picasso and Africa’ in a sunny corner of the National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN).

Picture elevating your exhibition through your study of Graham Coller’s ‘Form, Space and Vision’ or spending a day pouring over work by John Muafangejo, Christine Marais and Amy Schoeman.

All this and more is currently in store at Pashuka – a brand new reading corner founded by the NAGN and Bank Windhoek.

A place of African journals and magazines, books on art history and visual culture, Pashuka is the space that artists and art enthusiasts have been waiting for and which – as the Oshiwambo name implies – will open local artists’ eyes to the wealth of knowledge and inspiration available in various visual art texts.

Though the creation of a physical library may seem a dated endeavour, Bank Windhoek’s head of corporate affairs, Riaan van Rooyen, believes the art corner is a step in the right direction.

“It is known that all types of libraries have challenges to deal with in this age of increasing technology and the digital era that we are living in today and even though art libraries and their complex relationship with technology are encountering many challenges, it is important that art image indexing and retrieval reach the level of sophistication that other information storage and retrieval systems have reached,” he says.

“Therefore, with a quality art reading library in conjunction with the art reading corner Pashuka, Bank Windhoek and the NAGN aim to increase public access to art. Pashuka will allow art lovers the opportunity to experience visual art.”

Adequately academic in its offerings but not scant on glossy magazines, coffee table books and international art catalogues, Pashuka is open but still in the process of being curated as books like ‘Art Deco’ by Eva Warbler, ‘Art Botswana’ and Chris Spring’s ‘African Textiles’ hit the shelves.

“The art library is a powerful tool to be used to engage with communities,” says Van Rooyen.

“This can be seen as a means to stimulate public conversation, contribute to the development of artists by creative learning and to create artists capable of action.”

Certainly noble in its pursuits, warm and welcoming down the steps to the left of the NAGN foyer, Pashuka is ready and waiting for its first guests who may peruse the art on the walls, take a seat below a large bookshelf framed in adult colouring book style black and white or simply hunch over texts at the front desks for some real research.

Pop in to Pashuka to discover a new and enlightening corner of the city.

It’s quaint, quiet and for the curious.

Pashuka is free and open to the public on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 13h00 to 16h00 and Saturday between 09h00 to 12h00. Contact the NAGN for more information.

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